The Love of an Angel
by DaLizzie
Summary: COMPLETE He was expecting a prize, like gold or a ruby. What he found was rather different, but even more valuable. Warning: PG13 for yaoi.
1. Demonic Thief and Angelic Prize

A/N: Yes, by God, I did actually start on that Ryou/Bakura fic that I said I was going to write. It's kind of a side story to Little Angel. Anyways, please read and review!

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. Got it?

The Love of an Angel

Chapter 1

A dark shadow slipped down the corridor, wary eyes glancing over his shoulder often. Silent feet ran across the cold stone floor, weaving around enormous marble columns and half-asleep guards. The shadow had his dark wings folded, fearing that he might be seen or heard if he flew. Dashing up an elaborate flight of stairs, the young, white-haired demon grinned. He had almost made it to the Demon Lord's main vault.

At the top of the stairs were two snoring guards, who the demon quietly snuck past, and behind them were heavy crimson drapes that had a glow of light behind them. The fanged grin widened; he had made it.

Bakura was a well-known thief in the demon realm, and it had been said of him that he could steal any treasure that he set his eye on. Bakura had stayed true to that reputation, and when he heard that a great treasure had been brought to the Demon Lord from far away, the temptation was too great to resist. Rumor had it that this gift, whatever it was, would be a gift to the Demon Lord's heir on his coming-of-age birthday. Rumor also had it that the gift was the most beautiful treasure in all of the demon realm, which had convinced Bakura to overlook the immense danger of sneaking into the palace to steal the treasure.

The demon slipped through the drapes without a sound and, ignoring the gold coins and jewels the size of his palm, made his way to the very back where this treasure was supposed to be kept. He toyed with several ideas of what it could be until he reached the end of the treasure vault. What he saw made him stop in his tracks, speechless.

Tied to one of the obsidian pillars in the back of the enormous room was a young boy with unruly white hair that was much like Bakura's own. The boy also had a distinctly large pair of white feathered wings protruding from his back. He was an angel.

/An angel?!/ Bakura didn't know what to do or think for a few moments. Was this really the great treasure that was being talked about in the streets of the city? Bakura didn't have much time to ponder on the question as he heard a voice behind him.

"Hey! You can't come in here!" Bakura's garnet-colored eyes darted to where one of the sleeping guards, who had evidently woken up, was standing in the doorway staring at the white-haired demon.

Said demon reacted as quickly as was possible. He whipped out a dagger, cut the ropes that were binding the angel to the pillar, and swerved around the half-asleep guard with the angel in his arms. He had just enough time to note that the angel was still bound hands, feet, and wings and was gagged, then saw more guards ahead of him as he ran.

With a malicious smile, Bakura spread his great black wings and was soon zooming just a few feet above the ground with a low, open window as his target. As soon as he was outside, he swooped upward to try and clear the walls around the palace. Black arrows zipped through the air past him, some just inches from his wings or face.

The demon laughed aloud as he heard the frustrated and flabbergasted cries of the guards far behind him, and in a few moments he had cleared the palace walls. He then quickly descended down into the winding city streets below.

There wasn't much traffic for him to worry about at that time of night, so he quickly reached the edge of the city and disappeared into the wild trees of the surrounding forest. He finally stopped in the shelter of a particularly large tree, not wanting to risk flying anymore. The sound of his wings would be much too conspicuous to someone searching for him over the trees, and it wasn't that much farther to his little hideout, anyways.

He watched the skies for a few moments, and saw some black, winged shapes swoop down low over the trees, some shouting orders and commands. Bakura was grinning like a cat as they flew right over him. Most of the guards were either half-asleep or half-drunk, almost all of them had no idea what was going on, and those that did were starting to get blue in the face from trying to explain it over and over.

Satisfied that there was enough chaos within his majesty's imperial guard for there to be no immediate danger, Bakura looked back down at the treasure that he had just stolen.

The angel looked up at Bakura in fear, trying his best to shrink back against the trunk of the sheltering tree. Bakura ignored the angel's fear, trying to set the facts straight in his mind. The treasure was an angel? And the Demon Lord was going to give an angel to his son? Bakura was momentarily disgusted with the notion, then deliberately pushed it out of his mind. He had heard of many similar instances, so he wasn't overly surprised.

Looking down at the angel critically, Bakura noted that, strangely, the angel looked an awful lot like himself. And yet, not so much as one would think at first glance. If one looked deeper, the angel had an air of innocence and beauty that made Bakura realize why this angel had been considered such a valuable treasure. He truly was very beautiful.

The demon pursed his lips, wondering what he was going to do with his newfound spoils. He certainly wouldn't return the angel, of course, because he wouldn't wish the fate of spending a night with the Demon Lord's son on his worst enemy, but also because he wasn't about to give that bastard anything if he could help it. Bakura wasn't quite sure if the angel would be of any worth if he kept him, but…

His train of thought was cut off as he realized that he was wasting time arguing with himself. The entire demon army would be searching for him, so Bakura had to get somewhere safe, and then he could decide what his next move would be. The angel was still looking up at him, shivering from fear and the cool night air.

Bakura sighed, then reached out towards the angel. Said angel shrank back, frightened and jumpy. He relaxed a little, though, as Bakura removed the gag. Seeing his entire face nearly took Bakura's breath away. The angel was stunning. Shaking his head slightly to clear his mind, Bakura asked, "What's your name?"

The angel looked back at Bakura uncomprehendingly for a moment, during which Bakura feared that he and the angel didn't speak the same language, then he said timidly, "R-Ryou."

Bakura nodded, then looked the angel up and down. His body was covered with bruises and half-healed cuts, along with a nasty gash on the sole of his right foot. Bakura also doubted that Ryou's wings were in working order, so he decided that he would have to carry the angel the rest of the way.

Looking back at Ryou, Bakura saw that the look in his eyes was pleading with Bakura to untie him. Bakura hesitated for a moment, and was about to cut the away the angel's bonds when the shouting of guards and the soft sound of wings beating on the wind filled the air above them. Bakura fought down his panic, grabbed the angel, and ran.

It was only ten minutes of running that got him where he needed to be; a few bushes and some trees hid the small entrance to a somewhat small cave that came the closest to being Bakura's home. Most of it he had dug out himself, but quite a bit of it was a natural cave.

Once both the demon and the angel were safe underground and the torches around the room were lit so Bakura could see, he set Ryou down on the small bed in a corner of the room that had various silks and velvets draped over it that he had stolen. Bakura stretched his aching muscles, then proceeded to dig around in his assortment of stolen goods for some food.

Ryou, meanwhile, was looking around the underground room in wonder. The first thing that caught his eye was a pile of pure gold in another corner of the cave, with several statues, goblets, jewelry, swords, shields, and on and on. The torches on the walls were attached with gold, and there was a big silver chest that was next to the golden pile. Ryou could only guess what was inside. There were a few mismatched chairs and a carved wood table in the room, also.

Ryou was brought out of his dazed admiration of the small cave as the demon started coming towards him with a glinting knife in his hand. The angel weakly struggled against his bonds, but they were tied so tightly that it was painful to move. He shrank away fearfully as the demon came closer.

Bakura rolled his eyes. "I'm just gonna let you go, all right?" Ryou nodded slowly as Bakura stepped over, then cut the ropes around Ryou's wrists, ankles, and wings. Ryou slowly began to move his limbs around, having not been able to move them much for days. He whimpered as he tried to move his left wing; he had forgotten about what had happened to it.

Tears sprang into his eyes as pain pulsed through his wing, and his pained expression made Bakura quirk an eyebrow and ask, "Something broken?"

Ryou nodded in answer, and said in a strained voice, "It's my…wing. This one." He pointed to his broken left wing.

Bakura just nodded, and began to prod Ryou's wing a bit. The angel cried out in pain, and Bakura stopped as he said, "I think I might have to reset the bone. Then it'll feel better, but it's going to get a lot worse before that happens."

Bakura looked down at the angel for some sort of affirmation. Ryou looked up at the demon, his large green eyes looking fearful and apprehensive at first, then slowly became trusting. The angel nodded, and clutched the covers on the bed tightly as he turned to stare at a fixed spot on the cave wall.

The demon felt through the feathers until he was sure that he knew what he was going to do, then paused for a moment. That was all the warning that Ryou had, and a loud crack would have resounded through the cave if Ryou's scream hadn't drowned it out.

Ryou barely processed that Bakura was quickly wrapping a bandage around his injured wing, as he was trying to keep from blacking out. The pain eventually faded down to a dull ache, and Ryou relaxed some.

"I hope nobody up there heard that scream…" Bakura muttered, taking a bite of his bread. Ryou almost winced; for some reason, Bakura's words stung, and the hunger wasn't helping any. He hugged his knees to his chest, staring at the floor.

Bakura looked over at the angel, and something pulled at his heart. That didn't happen very often, so it would be fair to say that he was a bit surprised. He looked down at the bread in his hands, then back to the angel. /Eh… whatever./ Deciding that it wasn't like the angel could do anything to him, he said, "Here," as he tossed a piece of bread to Ryou.

Ryou barely caught it, stared at Bakura for a moment, then proceeded to scarf it down. Bakura turned to stare at the wall; for some reason, the angel was getting to him. It wasn't just that he was beautiful, which he was, but he had an air of pureness that Bakura had never truly felt or seen before. He wasn't like the white-feathered aristocrats that seemed to run things in the upper lands anymore, but like an angel from the old storybooks that told how angels were always pure, beautiful, and saintly. Bakura decided that that was exactly what Ryou was; an angel from the old times when saint-like, virtuous angels and noble, lordly demons ruled the upper and lower lands.

What Bakura couldn't figure out, however, was why he was feeling something for the angel. He hadn't felt anything for anyone since he was very young, and after that he had closed his heart to all else that could possibly hurt him, and had thus condemned himself to a numb loneliness. Or, so he thought. Bakura never liked to admit this fact to himself, and always pushed it out of his mind late at night when his mind had nothing else to occupy itself with. For some reason, a little portion of the ice had melted when he looked into that angel's eyes. It was illogical, and that was beginning to irritate the demon.

After unsuccessfully attempting to put all of those thoughts out of his mind, which was what he always thought to be the best way to take care of such confusing ideas, Bakura dared to glance back over at Ryou. The angel had quickly finished the bread that Bakura had given him, and had fallen asleep curled up on the bed. His good wing was wrapped around himself, though he still shivered slightly.

Bakura sighed. "Damn angel probably isn't good for anything…" he said quietly, trying desperately to convince himself that he really didn't care. Against that very thought, Bakura picked up a blanket and spread it over the angel's body. Ryou sighed in his sleep, and pulled the blanket tightly around himself. Bakura mentally slapped himself.

/You're getting soft. You can't let that happen, you know that. Especially not for a gutless, white-feathered weakling like this pathetic creature./

Only half-satisfied with this reprimand of his actions, Bakura flopped down on some of the many cushions that were piled in a corner of the room. Tired of thinking and tired of arguing with himself, Bakura slowly fell asleep.

A/N: *gawks* That, for me, was a long chapter. I can't believe I actually wrote that much! Anyways, ya'll know I need reviews to continue. So review please! ^_^


	2. Thunder and Names

A/N: Woot! New chapter! *does happy dance* I have been so busy this week, it's not even funny! But, I'd been working on some ideas in my spare time, and I finally put it all together. ^_^ Hopefully I'll be able to get a lot of work done on some of my other fics, and this one, during Thanksgiving break.

The Love of an Angel

Chapter 2

Bakura woke from his sound sleep suddenly to the sound of thunder ripping across the sky. He rolled his eyes, knowing it would be almost impossible to sleep with that noise going on. /At least I got back before the storm started………/ he thought to himself, and was about to roll back over to try and sleep when he heard a soft whimper from somewhere in the darkened room.

Frowning, Bakura snapped a finger so that one of the torches in the room burst to life. The shadowed figure of Ryou huddled under the blanket met Bakura's gaze. The angel was obviously frightened, his wide green eyes darting around the room and his entire body shaking as he pulled the thin blanket around himself.

Thunder rumbled in an ear-splitting crash once again, and Ryou put his hands over his ears as he shut his eyes tightly. The angel curled up on the bed, still shaking from fright. Bakura scratched his head. He had never seen anyone so frightened of thunder.

The demon sighed, then pulled himself up and walked over to the frightened angel. "Look, it's just thunder. It's not like it can hurt you." Ryou didn't seem to hear him, or even acknowledge his presence. It was then that Bakura saw the angel's hands over his own ears.

/Ah…/

Bakura reached down and took Ryou's hands in his own, not quite expecting that Ryou would latch on to them so tightly. Wide green eyes stared back at Bakura in fear.

"It's just thunder. It's not going to hurt you," Bakura repeated flatly. Ryou bit his lip, and looked down.

"I-I don't like that noise. It reminds m-me of…" Ryou stopped for a moment, swallowing hard, then shakily whispered, "Him…"

Bakura just blinked. "What?"

"The thunder, it reminds me of him…" As Bakura continued to stare blankly, Ryou went on, "The one with the dark eyes and the black crown," Ryou shuddered involuntarily, "and his aura always felt like… some kind of poison. Like a serpent or a snake."

/The Demon Lord. I should have guessed/ Bakura thought to himself. However vague the description, one would always find some reference to a venomous reptile when recalling memories of the Demon Lord. His son was quite the same.

"And…" Ryou's voice brought Bakura back into the present, "and, there was thunder when they took me away from the White Land." The angel's voice broke, and he fell silent.

It was then that Bakura noticed something strange on Ryou's face. It looked like water coming out of his eyes. Frowning, Bakura reached out in curiosity to touch the crystalline droplets. Ryou froze as he felt Bakura's rough fingers caress his cheek gently, then slowly pull away. Bakura inspected the clear drops on the tips of his fingers, the sight of them seeming familiar but the name of them eluding him.

Thunder suddenly ripped across the sky once again, and Ryou instinctively tried to get to where he felt safest, which happened to be in Bakura's arms. The demon was surprised, to say the least, especially at the warm, comfortable feeling that emerged somewhere in the back of his mind as the shaking angel clung to him. It felt rather nice, and Bakura was still very tired and in need of sleep. He began to think that lying down next to Ryou for the night wouldn't be such a bad idea. It didn't seem like the angel was going to object…

/What in the name of the nine hells are you doing, you idiot?!?/ a voice screamed at him. Bakura thought for a moment, realizing that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. The voice shouted at him once again to push Ryou away.

/You can't let anyone in! You know what happened the last time. You're invincible if everything is kept outside and far away, but if you let something or someone in, then all that goes out the window!/

/You know what?/ Bakura said tiredly to the voice.

/What?/

/Shut up./

Bakura had always been disgusted at the close proximity of anything else that breathed, but now the only thing he could find to be disgusted with was the fact that he was enjoying it. But, the more dominant voice at the moment was the one that favored Ryou's closeness, and all the logic that Bakura had come up with about keeping others away had crumbled into a pile of gibberish.

Ryou woke up gradually to the sound of slow, even breathing beside him. He found himself nestled against something warm, and looked up to see that it was a young man with wild white hair. All of the memories came back in a sudden rush, and Ryou nearly bolted into a sitting position. The only problem was, there was a pair of strong arms and a pair of black wings wrapped around him.

The angel allowed a small smile to creep on to his face. It had been a long time since he had felt safe, and that was the feeling he got from being in this demon's arms. It was only then that Ryou realized that he didn't even know the demon's name. Making a mental note to ask him later, the angel looked around. No light came into the cave from outside, so it was impossible to tell if it was night or day.

Ryou almost jumped out of his skin when the demon suddenly moved beside him. Murmuring something unintelligible in his sleep, dark blood eyes opened slowly to meet Ryou's lighter ones. The demon looked at the angel blankly for a moment, then suddenly jumped away so quickly that he almost fell right off the bed they were in.

Unused to the sudden cold in the demon's absence, Ryou pulled the blanket tighter around himself. He watched the demon look around the cave as if he expected someone else to be there watching them.

"Um…" Ryou started timidly, then said, "Are you… okay?" The demon looked back at Ryou with an unreadable expression.

"I'm fine," he muttered in a low voice as he stalked towards the entrance of the cave. "Just fine."

"Ah, excuse me…" The demon turned once again to look back at the angel, this time looking a bit annoyed. "Could you, um…" Ryou faltered for a moment, then went on, "Could you… tell me your name?"

The demon just stared. Ryou was beginning to think that he'd done something wrong when the demon finally replied.

"Bakura," he said in a flat voice. "It's Bakura." Ryou allowed himself a smile as he watched Bakura disappear from the cave.

A/N: Heh, some of that was just pointless fluff stuff. Oh, well, hopefully more will happen in the next chapter, but I'm pleased with how this one came out anyways. Please review!


	3. Innocence is Past

A/N: Bad Lizzie, bad! I haven't updated this in so long it's almost a crime. When was the last time I updated on this fic? Oh my god, I haven't worked on this thing since November! Anyways, since I finally finished Come Save Me, I've decided to devote my time to finishing this fic. After this, I'll be going on to other ideas for fics. Hopefully, my muse won't fast forward and start working on new stuff ahead of me. He's been known to do that. BTW, the last chapter of Come Save Me that is currently posted isn't the original. I got a few reviews on the original last chapter, and most people commented that it didn't seem long enough or seemed to be lacking in detail. So, I went back and rewrote the chapter, and I'm a lot happier with it. Anyhoo, on to the chapter!

The Love of an Angel

Chapter 3

Ryou sat on the bed where the demon had set him, trying not to fidget. He glanced from time to time over at Bakura. The utter silence didn't seem to bother dark-winged creature, while to Ryou it seemed rather suffocating. The cave they were in didn't help, either. Ryou was used to very open spaces, like the green fields that had been near his home and the open sky that had once been within his reach.

Biting his lip, the angel glanced over at Bakura once more. The demon was idly flipping through a strange deck of cards that he had fished out of the silver chest in the corner of the cave, and but otherwise hadn't moved or even said anything for the past two hours. Ryou finally decided to try and break the silence that seemed to be getting thicker and thicker in the air as each moment passed.

"Have you ever been to the White Lands?" the angel asked, his voice sounding timid and small to his own ears.

"No," Bakura answered flatly.

"Oh," was all Ryou said. Not wanting the silence to return, Ryou simply kept talking, "It's very beautiful. I don't live in any of the famous cities or anything, but out in the countryside where there aren't many people around. Papa didn't like the city, so he moved out into the open country when I was really young. There's a river that goes by our house and a forest on the other side of it. Everything else is green fields, and if you fly up high enough you can see the mountain border between the White Lands and the Black Lands."

Ryou had been staring up at the grayish-black ceiling of the cave as he spoke, and dared to steal a look at Bakura at that moment. The demon's face hadn't changed. Ryou swallowed a bit nervously.

"Papa died a few years ago," he found himself saying. "Mama died when we still lived in the city, so I didn't really know her very well. I was living out there alone until just a few days ago."

Suddenly feeling bold, Ryou turned to look directly at the demon.

"Where do you come from?" he asked, his voice still seeming much too timid.

Bakura didn't even look up as he replied, "None of your business."

Ryou bit his lip and looked down at his hands for a moment, then said, "I told you where I'm from. Now it's your turn."

His turn? Bakura looked at the angel, trying to glare, but finding it hard to do as a pair of soft green eyes stared back imploringly. The demon tried to harden his gaze unsuccessfully, and then simply looked back down at his deck of cards.

"A small, nameless village to the north of the capital city, by the mountains," Bakura said in an emotionless voice. Ryou waited, but Bakura didn't continue.

"W-what about your parents?"

One of Bakura's wings twitched in irritation. "If you must know… I lived there with my mother, and sometimes my father. He was away a lot, so I didn't see much of him. I was seven when he came to the village one day with a battalion of the Demon Lord's guard that killed everyone, including my mother, looking for some kind valuable object that he had promised them in exchange for his own life. They killed him anyways, just like everyone else. I got away, though, and I've never gone back since."

Ryou wasn't quite sure what to say after Bakura fell silent. Having lost both of his parents, he knew what it was like to live life without them, but to have lost them in such a brutal way was a pain that he had never felt.

It suddenly became clear why Bakura was so cold and distant. He had lost all of his innocence a long time ago, and it was something that could not be regained or undone.

"I'm sorry…" Ryou said softly. The words seemed inadequate, but the feeling that he should say something didn't subside.

"Don't be," Bakura said in his conventionally flat tone of voice. Ryou sighed as he lay down on the bed. With nothing to do and nothing else to think about, the angel found himself harboring a small obsession of whether or not it would be possible to reach past Bakura's cold shell and find the person that had to still be inside there somewhere. He found himself wanting to help the demon in any way possible, a want that was born of the one thing that Ryou knew of that he and the demon had in common: loss.

The angel's eyes suddenly began to droop. /Maybe I'll think about it later…/ he thought to himself.

Ryou woke as a hand touched his shoulder and shook him. "Angel, wake up," the familiar, gruff voice said. Sleepy green eyes looked up at Bakura.

"We need to move. Get yourself up," the demon said, and he turned towards the concealed entrance of the cave. Ryou didn't even remember falling asleep, but he sat up and tried to rub the sleepiness out of his eyes. He had been dreaming about the White Lands, and waking up to be reminded of where he really was wasn't pleasant.

Ryou felt himself suddenly pulled to his feet, and winced at the pressure he was forced to put on his injured foot. "We need to hurry," Bakura said in a whisper that Ryou's sleep-clogged mind barely processed. The angel was pulled along through the entrance and out into the forest hurriedly, knives of pain shooting up through his leg with every step.

It was night outside, that much Ryou knew. The trees were blurred shadows around him, and the soft light of a thousand stars and one smiling moon made silvery shapes on the ground. The angel continued to limp along behind Bakura for what seemed like an eternity, his mind still clouded with sleep and his legs barely functioning.

The eternity of moving forward continued to pass until Ryou finally decided that he needed to ask Bakura if they could stop for a moment. He was exhausted, and couldn't take the pain in his leg much longer. Even his broken wing, though unused, was beginning to throb. Suddenly, the angel felt his knees give out, and he stumbled and fell in an ungraceful heap on the ground.

Bakura bit back a growl, wondering for the second time why he had decided to keep the angel. He quickly picked Ryou up, not wanting to waste any more time, and hurried through the dark trees.

The angel watched the shadows go by with half-lidded eyes as Bakura carried him through the night. The oddly secure feeling of being in the arms of the demon returned, and his eyelids became heavier and heavier.

When the demon reached their new location, Ryou was fast asleep. Bakura was getting more and more worried about the amount of guards that were patrolling the forest. Never in his life had he stolen anything that had gotten this much attention, even from the Demon Lord. Therefore, he thought it better if he and the angel were to change their location every so often until the tension wore down, however long that took. Afterwards, it would be safe to escape into another city where it was easier to hide.

Thankfully, the forested region around the capital city of the Black Lands had a labyrinth of caves underneath the surface. Bakura had never fully explored it, but took advantage of some of the concealed entrances to the underground tunnels as hiding places when he needed them. In the back of his mind was a map of where every single concealed entrance was that he had ever found, and this map did not fail him as he slipped between two large trees and under some tangled brush to find a small cave entrance in the side of a shallow hill.

Bakura had never visited this hiding place as much as the first, and so it wasn't as well-equipped. The first had been his treasury, of sorts, with many of the more valuable things that he had stolen and had either forgotten to sell or didn't want to sell. This cave he had only used once before, and therefore only knew its location.

Laying Ryou down on the cavern's floor, Bakura's narrowed eyes scanned the area around the outside of the cave. The trees and the brush hid the opening quite well, but the demon was taking no chances. Arrogant though he might be, Bakura knew his business, and part of that business was how to keep from getting caught. His slightly pointed ears pricked up suddenly when he heard a soft sigh.

/It's only the angel/ Bakura told himself, rolling his eyes. Deciding that they were safe for the moment, Bakura sat down and stretched languidly. He crossed his arms, frowning at the size of the cave. He had never particularly liked small spaces, but knew that they wouldn't be staying in this cave very long, and so tried to relax. No such luck.

The angel was murmuring things in his sleep as he curled up into a tight ball. Bakura tried to make out what he was saying, but it was in some other language that he didn't know. Ryou shook his head back and forth as if trying to say no to something, his body beginning to shake all over. Slowly, a drop of water escaped from the corner of his right eye, followed by more that rolled down his cheeks and made dark spots on the ground.

Frowning, Bakura crept closer to the angel. It annoyed him to no end that he couldn't figure out what that water was coming out of Ryou's eyes. When it had happened the first night that the angel had been with him, it was like a memory from a dream that had occurred years ago had suddenly come back to him. It seemed like he should know what they were called and why they were happening, but the name and the reason eluded him. Ryou must know what they were called, he must know the thing that makes them happen; maybe he could ask the angel once he woke up?

The demon almost growled out loud at that idea. He didn't need to depend on that angel for anything, not even the simple answer to a question!

But still, the demon's curious side refused to give up, and Bakura continued to wonder if there was something that Ryou had that he didn't. This thing seemed so familiar that Bakura knew he must have known what it was once, but had lost it. It was sort of like that dream memory that he had forgotten until now, but bigger, more important.

Bakura felt the emotions creeping in once again, the horrid things that he had tried to keep away for so long. More cracks in his defenses were beginning to form as his curiosity for what this thing was overrided all his other concerns.

"What is this thing that you have?" Bakura asked in a whisper to the sleeping angel. "It's so familiar; did I have it once?" The demon dared to touch Ryou's warm hand as the cold, emotionless demeanor he worked so hard to keep up began to crumble and leave him defenseless.

"Can I ever have it again?"

A/N: Well, I have to say that I'm pleased with how this chapter turned out. I got stuck in a rut on this fic for a while, which was why I worked only on Come Save Me for so long. But, my muse finally got his act together, and now this fic is my main focus. Sorry for not updating on it in so long, I promise that I'll be better about it. Please review!


	4. Dreams of Blood

A/N: No, Algebra II has not managed to kill me! (Yet…) There has to be an easier way to graduate from high school. But anyways! I've been rather busy, mostly because of school, but also because I'm working on an idea that my sister came up with. She had a dream with a few random YGO characters scattered about, formed a rough plot from it, told me about it, and we both got our own ideas for it. So, we're each going to write our own versions and compare them once we're done. Fun stuff. Now, on to the long-awaited (or not) Chapter 4!

The Love of an Angel

Chapter 4

The lord of the Black Lands was not happy. Now, all things considered, his majesty wasn't exactly the happiest of campers on a regular basis to begin with. But now, with the gift for his son stolen and the thief that had stolen the gift nowhere to be found, the Demon Lord was royally ticked off.

He had been so ticked off, in fact, that it had taken one of his aides an entire three hours of dodging various projectiles and working his way past the shouts of anger to suggest to his majesty that maybe they could hire a professional to hunt down the thief. Someone who knew how an expert thief's mind worked, and someone who was an exceptionally good tracker.

The Demon Lord had turned this over and over in his mind, considering all the pros and cons of such an action, and then had finally told his aides to find the most skilled bounty hunter in the land. Today, that bounty hunter had been found. He was well-known to many, and had a reputation of being both ruthless and deadly. It was often said that no one he tracked had ever escaped his grasp. He had been found residing in a city to the south, and was being escorted to the Demon Lord's palace as quickly as was possible.

His majesty sat on his throne surrounded by several advisors and aides as he waited for the bounty hunter to come forth, imagining how wonderful it would be to have that pesky thief out of his hair. He had dealt with the white-haired demon before; Bakura had humiliated the Demon Lord several times, but that was only when his majesty had been visiting other parts of his country. Never had the thief dared to come into the palace in the capital city, but the fact that he had done so and gotten away with it was the most humiliating thing of all.

In fact, the actual gift wasn't what his majesty was worried about the most. It was living with the fact that a mere petty thief had gotten the best of him, a member of the royal family! Therefore, it was of the greatest importance to get the gift back, get rid of the thief, and have his reputation (as well as his ego) restored. A malicious grin twisted itself onto the lord's face as he envisioned all the methods of torture he could inflict on the thief if he happened to be brought back alive.

The thoughts were suddenly forced into the back of his mind as a black-cloaked figure gained the Demon Lord's attention. The stranger strode into the front hall, his feet somehow silent on the smooth stone floor, and his face hidden beneath a midnight-colored hood. Somehow, the stranger's very presence covered the lord's skin in goosebumps.

"You called for one who can track down an expert thief," said a hard, menacing voice from somewhere beneath the hood. His majesty blinked, noting that the bounty hunter somehow managed to stand perfectly still, without any evidence that he was even breathing.

"Well?" the bounty hunter snapped, suddenly impatient.

"Yes," the Demon Lord said curtly, rather put off by the bounty hunter's superior air. He was also put off by the fact that the bounty hunter had refused to bow as he had entered the main hall. "There is a special item that I want you to retrieve from this thief. I believe you might know him. Sources tell me that his name is Bakura."

There was a moment of silence from the bounty hunter. "Yes," he finally said with a hint of irritation in his voice. "I know him."

"This item must come back to me unharmed, for it is of the utmost importance," the Demon Lord continued. "And I want the thief brought to me, dead or alive."

The bounty hunter stayed completely silent for a full minute, during which the Demon Lord began to grow slightly nervous. He squinted slightly at the bounty hunter, trying to see any indication that he had even been heard. He couldn't even see the stranger's eyes, and that made him even more nervous.

"I will pay you handsomely for the completed job," he said, trying to get the deal closed so that he would be able to get as far away as possible from this strange demon. "Four hundred thousand gold pieces will be your reward for bringing me the item and the thief."

The voice emerged from the cloaked figure again, "One million gold pieces." The Demon Lord's eyes bulged out in shock as his mouth dropped open. Then, his face reddened with visible rage.

"That's absurd!" he nearly shouted, standing up halfway from his throne.

"You will take it on my terms, or we have nothing else to discuss," the bounty hunter replied immediately. "And I'm quite sure that your son will be very disappointed at not having his angel to play with on his coming-of-age birthday night, now, won't he?"

The Demon Lord's eyes widened even more, and he paled visibly. Only his most trusted aides and officials knew what the gift actually was, and he had several assurances (financial or otherwise) that none of them would let the information out. How had this stranger known?

"You will either take it, or I will leave," the bounty hunter said in a hollow stone voice, the threat painfully clear. The lord's eyes darted around for a few bare seconds, and then the bounty hunter began to turn to leave. Not seeing any other way to get his precious item back, and regain his pride, the Demon Lord nodded reluctantly as he sat back down heavily.

"One million gold pieces," he repeated in a defeated voice.

A fanged smile appeared from under the shadows that the hood cast on the figure's face. "Perfect," the unnerving voice said, then the bounty hunter turned and, like a shadow, disappeared from the hall.

* * *

_Blood was all that he could see around him. Blood on the walls of houses, blood splattered all over the ground, blood on his small hands… His mother's blood. She told him to run, she told them to stay away, she told him to run again and again until she finally fell. Run, run, run. He ran. Escape from it, make it go away, make it stop, please make it stop. Anything to make it stop, anything to make them stop screaming, anything to make the blood go away. Red everywhere, screams everywhere, keep running and don't stop, don't ever stop. _

_Run, run to the river. Escape across the river. Cold, cold, the water is so very cold. Cold and red, red and cold. The river is red. Swim, swim across the cold red river, find a way to escape. Across the river, out of the water, run and keep running. The blood won't go away. There is still blood on the ground, blood on the trees, blood on his hands. Nothing washes it away. There is always blood on his hands. _

"Go away…"

Ryou jerked awake suddenly, his dark dreams shattering into nothing. He stared blankly at the gray ceiling of the cave for a moment, wondering why he had woken so suddenly. Then, the angel jumped slightly as he heard it again. Ryou rolled over on to his side, wincing as he was forced to move his injured wing. Beside him, still asleep, was Bakura. The demon was murmuring something unintelligible, his head shaking back and forth.

Leaning closer to the demon, Ryou touched his shoulder gently. The demon jerked at the touch, and the murmuring became louder, though Ryou still couldn't make out what Bakura was saying. The demon's body shuddered momentarily, his hands balling into fists.

"No…" he muttered. "Go away…"

"Bakura?" Ryou began to shake the demon's shoulder, but he didn't respond. All he did was keep murmuring as the knuckles on his fisted hands began to turn white. Ryou shook harder.

"Bakura, wake up!" The black-winged creature's body suddenly began shaking violently, as if he was shivering from some kind of cold. His hands began to beat at the air, trying to ward off something that Ryou could not see.

"Bakura, please wake up!"

"Go away!" The demon shouted as he abruptly shot up into a sitting position, his breath heavy and his eyes wide. He stared at a fixed point on the cavern floor for a bare second, then his eyes darted to the angel sitting next to him. Something resembling fear began to cloud his hard garnet eyes as the horrifying images of his dream flashed through his mind.

This angel… This white-winged creature was bringing all the memories back. All the feelings, all the pain, everything was once again festering inside his soul. Everything that he had tried to block out in order to keep his sanity was once again threatening to consume him.

"Bakura, are you all right?" The angel pushed himself up into a sitting position, eyes questioning and concerned. The demon simply stared back with wide eyes, but jumped suddenly as Ryou moved towards him.

"Stay away!" Bakura said hoarsely. He backed himself up until he was against the opposite wall of the cave. "Stay away…"

Ryou stared at the demon with confusion and concern mixed in his soft green eyes. A helpless feeling that Bakura had been getting more and more whenever he looked into those eyes came back full force, and his mind reacted just as intensely.

/The angel, that's the reason. He's making everything come back. He's making me _feel_. This can't happen, it's not supposed to happen. He doesn't mean anything. Yes, that's right. He means nothing. Nothing at all. Everything means nothing to me./

"It means nothing," the demon breathed, speaking out loud without realizing it. "Nothing at all." Ryou frowned. What was the demon talking about?

"Excuse me, but…" Ryou trailed off as the dark blood eyes turned on him, the fear gone and replaced with nothing but endless, cold darkness.

"You mean nothing," he said with as much conviction as he could muster. "You are simply a prize, something that I have taken away from another owner to be sold to the highest bidder. You mean nothing."

There. It was said, it was done. The angel was exactly what he said; a prize, a treasure, an object. He meant nothing. Rebuild the cold stone walls around himself, block out everything else, and it would all be just fine. No cracks, no memories, no feelings, no pain. Just the way it ought to be.

So why didn't he believe it?

Bakura quickly stood and left the cave, setting himself down amongst the tangled brush where no one could see him from outside the cave and where Ryou couldn't see him from the inside.

Ryou found that his vision was suddenly blurred with tears. Was that all that he was to the demon? Just some prize, some valuable jewel stolen from a lord's treasury to be sold at a high price?

"Just a prize…" Ryou whispered to himself heartbrokenly, "… that means nothing at all."

Was he wrong when he had thought that there was some kind of human emotion remaining within the demon? Ryou laid himself back down on the ground and curled up again, and letting the hot, salty tears begin to escape his eyes. He tried for a few moments to wipe them away, but they kept coming in torrents down his cheeks, and he finally gave up and let himself cry.

"Yes, I was wrong," Ryou eventually murmured in a choked whisper, feeling darkness beginning to cloud his mind and his soul. "I'm completely alone."

All the comfort that Ryou had gotten from Bakura being there was suddenly gone, and he was all alone. There was no one, no one and nothing to take away the sharp pain of being completely and utterly alone anymore. The angel began to drift away into despair while Bakura stared at the night sky and listened to the silence, trying to keep away the thoughts and feelings that were slowly creeping past his defenses.

A/N: Whew! Late night at the office. It is… Eleven twenty-two! Heh, not as late as it could be, but still rather late for me on a school night. . You didn't hear me say that, all right? Anyways, I actually have most of the next chapter already laid out, so it shouldn't take as long as this one did. Hopefully, anyway. Please review!

P.S. Any guesses as to who the bounty hunter is? He is a YGO character, he's not an OC.


	5. Broken

A/N: I hope this update is sooner than the last few. I tried to work on it as much as possible. All my chapters still feel too darn short! It bugs the heck out of me. Oh, well, I'm still pretty happy with this one. Enjoy!

The Love of an Angel

Chapter 5

_He was falling. He had been falling for a long time, for how long he didn't know, from where he didn't know. He just knew that he was falling, and that when the end of the fall came, it would be the complete and total end._

_The bright sky above him began to fade into desolate gray clouds, and the sun's warmth withered away to be replaced with bitter cold. He opened his mouth to cry out, but his voice was suddenly frozen in his throat as his blood became frozen in its veins. _

_It was coming; he could feel it in his very soul. The end was breathing down his neck and curling cold, bony fingers around him. Everything went from black to blacker as the clouds suddenly disappeared from his sight, and the fall was over. All was silence, the suffocating, unbearable silence. So very suffocating; he couldn't breathe, he couldn't see. Deep under a still, silent lake of loneliness, his breath escaped him and the light evaded his reach. _

_In one last futile attempt to reach for the sky, he extended his hand out towards the surface of the black lake to see if anyone would reach back for him._

Something was wrong. Bakura's eyes snapped open to stare into the quiet night around him. Something wasn't right. Sitting up from where he had fallen into a light sleep, Bakura's garnet eyes carefully surveyed the unmoving woods around him. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary; he could detect no movement or presence of any kind other than his own.

Pointed ears twitched. There was still something that wasn't right, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. The slightest change in the smell of the air was enough to wake Bakura, and this change was much more significant than something that small. But, there wasn't any evidence of other demons in the area, or even any forest creatures. What was it?

Curious, and becoming rather annoyed, Bakura dared to take a look back into the cave where Ryou was. The angel was still lying on the cave floor with his uninjured wing wrapped around himself, as he had been when Bakura had woken up earlier. His pale, angelic face seemed to glow softly in the dim light, and in sleep he was almost as still as death.

Wait a minute…

Bakura's eyes widened, realization dawning upon him. That was it, that was the change. The angel was no longer breathing! The simple absence of that rhythmic sound was what had woken Bakura up, and now all the holes and cracks that he had thought were mended suddenly reformed tenfold within him.

/He means nothing, remember? Just a prize, just a jewel. Just a piece of merchandise, nothing more./

"But…" Bakura found himself talking out loud, suddenly feeling very unsteady. "But, I still need to ask him that question… about the tears…"

Tears! That was it! That's what they were called, he had remembered! Bakura began shaking the angel frantically, his heart suddenly racing in his chest as panic began to dominate his mind. Bakura's thoughts began screaming through his head what his tongue was somehow unable to say.

/I remembered, I remembered, I remembered! I know what they are now! But there's still more, there's so much more that I don't know, there has to be! You know what this is, angel, you know what these things are! You need to tell me, you need to show me! I need to know, I need to know what's missing! You have to wake up, angel, please!/

The demon could almost swear that there was suddenly the sound of glass shattering on stone; like a dam overflowing, the walls crumbled and fell. There were no defenses now. He was completely vulnerable, his entire soul resting on the hope that this angel could tell him what he couldn't find for himself.

The frantic shaking stopped. Bakura held to the unconscious angel's shoulders, staring down at him with eyes that flashed with so many emotions that he felt as if his heart might burst in his chest. A broken voice that Bakura hadn't heard in years began to speak from his lips.

"Angel, please…"he started, then shut his eyes tightly and clenched his teeth, hating this voice that he had thought was long dead. But, overcome with a need he couldn't explain, he continued. "I know I'm missing something, something important." Bakura grasped the angel's arm tightly, trying to find something to hold on to when everything was falling apart. "You know what it is; you've always known. You never lost it."

By then, the demon's voice had dropped to a hoarse, heartbroken whisper. "Please… you can show me. I'm sorry for what I said, it's not true. You can show me if you'll just wake up, please, angel…"

There was still no response; the angel lay still, his life fading away before Bakura's eyes. The demon lay down next to the angel, suddenly feeling a weakness in his limbs. He lay his head down near the angel's, burying his face in the soft white locks.

"Please wake up…" he whispered. Bakura was broken now. Everything had shattered, all the artificial outer skins had been stripped away, and all that was left was what had always been there. The pain, the terror, the helplessness, and the heartbroken child that had defended himself from the world in the only way that he could: by turning his back on it. This was no longer the cold, calculating demon, or the sly, clever thief; there was only a child.

"Please, angel," the broken one whispered to the savior. "Please…"

_Much to his surprise and joy, a hand plunged down into the dark water and took his. He was suddenly pulled out of the dark abyss, away from the loneliness, away from the despair, and was greeted by a welcome rush of sweet, pure, light-suffused air and half-hopeful garnet eyes. _

Ryou's emerald eyes snapped open, and he gasped for breath like he had just broken the surface of a sea. He sat up instinctively, coughing and trying to get air into his lungs.

Once the angel had gotten a bit of his breath back, his head slowly turned to look deeply into Bakura's eyes. What he saw nearly made him lose his breath all over again. Every shard of dark, frigid hate was gone from Bakura's garnet orbs. All the defenses were decimated, and all the walls had tumbled down into a ruined, broken heap. The entire façade had disappeared into the past, and the Bakura looking up at him was just as alone and lonely as Ryou was.

The garnet eyes gazed at Ryou forlornly. All the questions that Bakura had wanted to ask were like small flames captured in red amber, and Ryou found himself wanting to answer all those questions and show Bakura all the things that he had never been able to enjoy.

"What…" Ryou tried, then stopped to take a deep breath. "What… did you want me to show you?"

A figure cloaked in black moved swiftly through the forest, his black wings folded behind his back. He was following a nearly undetectable trail that only he could see, and did not use his wings because of the large abundance of trees and brush deep in the forest that could easily catch and damage a wing. Many of the palace guards, who were supposed to be the elite force of the Demon Lord, hurried to keep up. They weren't used to moving so quickly on foot; in fact, most of them were not used to moving quickly at all. They were utterly spoiled, and the bounty hunter thought them to be a troop of pampered, useless fools. The bounty hunter hadn't particularly wanted them to come, but his majesty had insisted that they help bring back the angel.

The Demon Lord's distrust of the bounty hunter was obvious, but that wasn't what the tracker was concentrating on at the moment. He estimated the trail of disturbed brush and snapped twigs he was following to be about three days old. The unusual depth of the very few footprints he managed to find suggested that the thief had been carrying the angel, which meant that the angel was injured. That would certainly slow the thief's getaway, which would only make the bounty hunter's job easier.

He was quite certain that the thief hadn't left the forest around the capital city yet. A patrol had been set up to cover every inch of the border around the forest, and the bounty hunter had to grudgingly admit that it was rather effective. No one had been allowed in or out of the forest ever since the night of the incident, and it would be difficult to sneak past such a thorough watch, especially with an injured angel as baggage. So, he had a hunch that this thief was planning on biding his time and waiting until most of the alarm had died down to make his escape out of the forest and into another city.

Suddenly, the trail that had been right in front of his eyes just a moment before stopped completely. He frowned, rather confused, and knowing that the demon wouldn't have risked flying with all the patrolling guards in the sky. Then, the bounty hunter noticed a thicket of trees right near the end of the trail. Eyes narrowing in suspicion, he stepped closer.

"Master Malik?" one of the few guards that had managed to catch up spoke.

"What?" Malik said viciously through clenched teeth, turning his vivid but hard lavender eyes on the guard that had dared to address him. The guard stuttered out a few unintelligible syllables, then said in a nervous voice, "We've already, ah, searched this area, Master Malik, sir. We didn't find anything."

"That is because you are an incompetent gaggle of blundering loons," Malik said matter-of-factly. The guard looked as if he was about to say something else, but Malik silenced him with a glare that seemed like it could burn right through flesh. Turning away from the annoying guard and peering through the trees, he could see a well-concealed cave entrance, with the trail leading directly into it. Another trail led out of the cave in another direction, towards the south. It seemed that the thief was trying to slowly work his way towards another city.

/Ah, but will you be able to outsmart me, my little angel thief/ Malik thought to himself. Grinning smugly, Malik took off running once again with the guards huffing and puffing along behind him.

A/N: Ooh, ominous! That's the desired effect, anyways. BTW, about the dream sequence, both my sister and I have had dreams in which we were drowning, and I think we might have actually stopped breathing while we were asleep. It was very weird; so, I decided that if one were to take that to an extreme, then one could actually die in their sleep if they were having such a dream. That's that idea, anyways. And for anyone who guessed that Malik was the bounty hunter, ya'll were right. The idea of a bounty hunter actually came from my sister when I was really stuck on what to do with this story, and Malik seemed like the perfect fit for the role. Anyways, I hope ya'll enjoyed the chapter, please review!


	6. It's a Question of Love

A/N: Yay for spring break! I can actually work on this stuff more often! does happy dance Okay, that's enough of that. This chapter really seemed to come out of nowhere, because I had no plans for it at all. I knew what would happen before this chapter (obviously) and I knew what would happen after it, but I wasn't sure what to put in the middle. This is the middle, and frankly I'm pretty pleased with it. And now, on to Chapter 6!

The Love of an Angel

Chapter 6

It was silent in the cave, but it was not the same breath-stealing silence as before. It was a comfortable silence, warmly wrapping itself around the two who simply lay in each other's arms as the night passed on. Ryou was leaning against the cave wall holding Bakura in his arms as one might hold a small child. Bakura's head lay on Ryou's chest, his arms wrapped around the angel's waist.

Earlier, Ryou had been trying to explain all the things that the demon had desperately wanted to know about. The first question had been about why he cried; when actually confronted with the question, Ryou found that he couldn't quite find an adequate way to phrase it.

"It's… when you hurt inside, like when you're sad, or unhappy. It just sort of happens when you feel that way, and sometimes when it starts… it's hard to stop." Bakura hadn't quite understood; at first he thought that one cried from physical pain, and Ryou had to explain that it was strong, and usually unsavory emotions that made it happen. Emotions were still a foreign concept to Bakura; his breakdown had mixed so many feelings together all at once that he had trouble distinguishing one from another, and thus was still rather confused.

Love had been the thing that Ryou wanted to stress the most. Bakura knew that he was missing something, and Ryou believed that it was love that was missing. The angel recalled to when his father had died; Ryou had cried, and had been sad for a long time, but had eventually decided that he would move on. He knew that his father and mother both loved him, and they would be waiting for him at the end of his lifetime. He had been strengthened by the love that they had given him while they were alive, feeling that as long as he could remember what it felt like to be loved then he could keep going through anything.

For Bakura, the only love he had ever known, which had been from his mother for only the first few years of his life, had been stripped away cruelly and mercilessly right before his eyes. Thus, all the strength he ever could have gained from love had been cut off, and from then on the demon had associated all feeling with pain. All that had been left was to shield himself from the rest of the world by keeping any form of feeling away, and therefore keeping pain away. That was what Ryou figured the demon's logic was, anyways.

Though Ryou had wanted to give Bakura love, Bakura still didn't quite understand it. Explaining it had been harder than the tears. "It's when you care about someone," Ryou had said, "and you care about them so much that you want to spend all your time with them, and you feel like you'd do anything for them just to make them happy, and they feel the same way in return."

He bit his lip, wondering if any of this was making any sense. "Sometimes it hurts a little, and it can make you cry, too, but it's really one of the best things you can ever hope to experience."

Bakura had thought about this and processed it carefully, still wary of these foreign concepts. Something instinctive had wanted to immediately abolish the idea of giving oneself so freely to another in this thing called love, saying that it was a weakness to the mind. But, a memory from a very long time ago had surfaced at the description of this strange emotion, and it overpowered everything else. It was warm, and he could hear a fire crackling and popping near him. Someone was looking down at him with soft eyes, and saying that they loved him…

Whatever was left of Bakura's composure had abandoned him right at that moment, and the demon finally broke down completely and began to cry. Ryou held Bakura close as the demon sobbed into his chest heartbrokenly, and for a single moment the angel could almost swear that he was holding a child in his arms.

Eventually, the sobs had subsided, and that was how they now sat, relaxed and thoughtful in the silence. The silence was broken, however, by Ryou softly humming a tune that had suddenly come to mind. It was something that was known by nearly every being in the White Lands, the words in a language so ancient that no one remembered their meaning. But, the song and the words had prevailed through time, and it was still known to many, including Ryou.

The humming stopped suddenly as Bakura shifted around, and looked up into Ryou's face. His eyes were thoughtful, with a tinge of uncertainty that Ryou still wasn't used to seeing in the demon's garnet eyes. Bakura was in uncharted territory; he was exploring things that were more dangerous to him than anything else he had ever done in his life.

"You said…" he began, "that a person who… loves… another… he will do anything for them?" Ryou nodded slowly.

"And he… wants to spend all his time with them?" Ryou nodded again. "And… that person will feel safe with them… right?" Ryou smiled, and said, "Yes. When you love someone, it feels right just to be near them, and you would ask nothing more of them except to just be near them."

Bakura looked thoughtful again, and there was silence in the cave once more. Eventually, Bakura said slowly, "So… if all that's true… then that means that…" Bakura double-checked it all just to be sure. It met all the criteria that Ryou had laid down, so it had to be true. Right? "That… I…" Bakura found that it was almost painful to look into Ryou's eyes, which were curious and slightly confused, and he looked away momentarily as his mouth finally formed the last two words, "…love… you…"

Ryou's mouth fell open. He had expected Bakura to be acting strange after such an emotional and mental meltdown, but he was left completely and utterly speechless at the thing that Bakura had just confessed.

The demon dared to look up again, and watched the angel carefully, his sharp features much more emotional than they had ever been before. His eyes began to cloud with tears again as he saw the shock, and what he thought to be disgust, on Ryou's face. Instead, however, Ryou threw his arms around Bakura and hugged him tightly. Tears were flowing freely down his cheeks as he laughed out loud just for the sheer joy of laughing, then on a sudden whim pressed his lips against the demon's.

Bakura's eyes widened instantly, and he froze. Everything inside him was exploding, a thousand strange emotions coursing through him and making the world around him spin uncontrollably. If he tried to rationalize it, it only spun faster. If he tried to control it, it simply increased its flow and broke through every wall. He was tired of resisting; he had been for a long time, and it was only this night that he was finally too tired to fight. The walls had broken, and now their ruins had been swept into oblivion, and Bakura gave himself away.

Closing his eyes, the demon kissed back hungrily and stole Ryou's very breath from his lungs. Completion; it was like some kind of sweet drug, something that invaded one's senses and left one wishing for more and to have it forever more.

Finally, the kiss was broken as the angel and the demon found their need for air much too great. They discovered that they had somehow migrated from a sitting position to the floor of the cave, Bakura lying on top of Ryou and looking down at him with lust-laden eyes.

The demon leaned down to kiss the angel again, this time traveling slowly and sensually down his neck, leaving hot, moist trails with his tongue. He gradually moved down to Ryou's chest, and began to unbutton the white fabric of the angel's shirt and push it off his shoulders. Ryou was overwhelmed by ecstasy, and was barely capable of doing anything except responding to Bakura's every touch with low moans and soft gasps.

Suddenly, Bakura stopped. Ryou looked over at the demon with half-lidded eyes, a questioning look on his face. Bakura was uncertain once again, a question evident in his eyes; should he be doing this? With a small smile, Ryou nodded, and Bakura let a half-grin appear on his face.

With permission received, Bakura proceeded to work his way down Ryou's chest, discarding the angel's clothes along the way. Ryou himself found a sudden unquenchable hunger inside of him, and pulled at Bakura's torn shirt until the demon eventually stopped his activities just long enough to take it off. Clothes abruptly became the most hindering things ever created as Bakura worked his way even lower, earning small gasps from the angel.

Then, Bakura suddenly crawled back up Ryou's body to kiss him once again on his sweet, full lips. As he pulled away, he saw Ryou's hot, flushed face with his soft green eyes unusually bright and clouded with passion.

"Bakura… I… I want…" Ryou panted, trying to form words to express what he was feeling. "I… want… you…" he finally managed to say, wrapping his arms around Bakura's neck and pulling himself closer.

A smirk that was rather characteristic of the thief worked its way onto Bakura's lips. "Let me show you…" he said softly, and leaned down for yet another kiss.

* * *

Light shone down from the sky as day broke, streams of it weaving its way through the brush and into the cave to fall upon the sleeping lovers. Ryou's eyes fluttered open first, his mind and soul at utter peace for the first time in what seemed like so very long. He felt the warm body next to him and the black wings wrapped around him, and reveled in the mixed pleasure of dawn and Bakura.

He gently touched Bakura's face, his fingers brushing over every angle and curve so as to burn the image into his memory. The demon's face was so relaxed in sleep, holding a peace within it that had never been allowed to him in wakefulness. Ryou grew sad for just a moment, wishing for impossibilities for just a bare second. Bakura's past could not be changed, he told himself; no matter how hard he or the demon wished for it, things were as they were. The moment passed, and Ryou was glad just to be in this very place at this very time, to be loving Bakura and keeping his dark dreams away.

At the angel's feathery touch, Bakura slowly awoke. The blood-colored eyes were soft as he gazed upon the angel, basking in the light of the first morning that he had seen in years. The night was finally over; how long it had lasted.

Ryou smiled his heart-capturing smile, and leaned forward to place a shy, chaste kiss on the demon's lips. The demon found himself smiling back, and also found himself not caring that he was doing so.

Suddenly, Bakura's pointed ears twitched slightly. Something had changed; something outside was different. Reluctantly, the demon tore his eyes away from his lover to look outside the cave. Ryou frowned slightly.

"Bakura? What is it?"

Bakura's eyes narrowed, and he rose into a crouched position. "I'm not sure…" he said quietly, and slowly crept towards the cave entrance. Ryou sat up, watching the demon carefully with a worried look on his face.

Creeping out into the tangled brush that covered the entrance of the cave, garnet eyes surveyed the forest around him carefully. He could sense someone here; he couldn't tell who or what it was, but there was something else besides the two of them in the vicinity.

Thinking quickly, Bakura slipped back into the cave. "We have to move. Now," he said in a hard, serious voice. Ryou simply nodded, and tried to get up as fast as he could. He bit his lip against a pained cry as he put too much pressure too quickly on his injured foot. But, the two of them managed to throw their clothes on and Bakura immediately picked the angel up as he crept back out of the cave into the brush.

The demon stood perfectly still, listening intently as he cradled the angel in his arms. After looking around carefully, Bakura darted out of the brush, running towards another cave that he knew of on his mental map of the forest.

Suddenly, he stopped. There had been a noise, like a twig snapping, right in the direction that he was going. Bakura tried to go around the area where the noise had occurred, but found suddenly that there were small sounds and traces of movement everywhere around him.

Ryou was clinging to the demon, his green eyes darting back and forth as he shook in fright. Bakura ground his teeth together. He could feel the presence of several others all around him, closing in quickly around them; they were surrounded. Bakura berated himself silently for not having been more careful beforehand.

Very suddenly, everything ceased. There was utter silence, and nothing moved. Bakura suddenly realized what was going to happen, and spread his wings as he leapt off the ground, but it was a single second too late. A sharp pain embedded itself in the back of his right shoulder, and he was flung forward to the ground. He tried to stand up, but suddenly found himself pinned down by five of the Demon Lord's guards. Bakura struggled against them, but the wound in his shoulder hindered him and all that he got was a fist in the stomach.

"Bakura!" The demon's head shot up as he heard Ryou's voice call out. Two other guards were roughly tying him up, pinning his arms and his wings behind his back. A scream erupted from the angel's throat as his broken wing was forced into an unnatural position, and it was abruptly cut off as one of the guard's fists connected with Ryou's jaw.

"Keep your hands off of him, you bastards!" Bakura shouted, which only earned him another punch in the stomach. He raised his head to see a figure cloaked in black standing before him, holding the bound angel by the collar of his shirt. Ryou was struggling frantically against the ropes and the stranger in black, his wide green eyes filled with fear.

"Ryou!" This was the last image in Bakura's mind as something hard and painful connected sharply with his head, and everything faded away into blackness.

A/N: Aren't I evil? Cliffies are so fun to do, and so are love confessions, so this chapter was a total blast to work on. I got a sudden rush of inspiration around midnight of last night, and almost everything in this chapter was the result. Must've been something in those cookies I had… But anyways! Please review, I love feedback.


	7. Captured

A/N: *ducks random projectiles* I'll make it better, I promise! *gets hit with a tomato* Yeah… First off, this chapter is short. I wanted to make it longer, but as always, I have trouble making stuff anywhere near long. No tomatoes for the shortness of it, please. *gets hit with broccoli* By the way, just to clear up any confusion, the bounty hunter Malik was the hikari, not the yami. On to the long-awaited (not really) Chapter 7!

The Love of an Angel

Chapter 7

When Bakura woke up, all he could see around himself was darkness. He squinted slightly, trying to see in the black abyss that he seemed to be surrounded with. The other things he was suddenly aware of were the sharp pains in his skull and his right shoulder, which made themselves known very effectively. He ground his teeth together in irritation. If he ever found out who had hit him from behind, the scum would regret ever being born.

The demon slowly became aware of his surroundings as his eyes adjusted to the dark. Being the illustrious thief and stealthy escape artist that he was, Bakura rarely saw the inside of a dungeon cell. Even in the very few times that he had been caught, no prison had been able to hold him for long.

This one seemed quite conventional; thick stone wall, heavy wooden door, and a high barred window that let the smallest bit of light in from a few torches outside. It was currently night, and clouds hid the moon behind their gray curtain. Bakura frowned as he looked at the sky. It had been early morning when he and Ryou had been captured. Just how long had he been unconscious?

Wait a minute… Ryou! Where was Ryou?

Bakura tried to leap to his feet, only to suddenly find that he couldn't. Being chained to the wall by one's wrists was a bit of a hindrance to said leaping. The demon growled in annoyance, trying to find something in the cell to glare at. This was going to complicate things slightly.

He wracked his brain, trying to remember everything that had happened. They had been going to another cave, and then there were the movements and noises all around them… Stupid, bumbling maggots, they must've had help to catch him… Then everything had just stopped. His shoulder began throbbing suddenly as a reminder of what had occurred after that. Then what had happened?

Bakura remembered hearing Ryou call his name, and then the angel had screamed. The last image that Bakura remembered seeing was some stranger in black with Ryou, and the rest was a blank. What had they done with Ryou?

Then, the demon suddenly remembered back to the first night that he had Ryou. A gift to the Demon Lord's son… Red filled Bakura's vision for a bare second at the thought, and another growl filled the stone prison. The angel belonged to him, not to some rich, spoiled, snot-nosed, sniveling, pig-faced, son of a…

Right then, he heard voices from somewhere outside his cell. Loud footsteps came down the hallway, and a few of the guards passed by, shouting and laughing rather drunkenly. Bakura very suddenly wished that his hands were free so that he could cover his ears when one of them started singing off-key. They stumbled down the hall, pounding on cell doors and shouting insults to the occupants.

One of them called through the door to Bakura's cell, "Enjoy your last night alive, bastard scum!" and they continued noisily down the corridor with their bottles in hand.

The sentence took a moment to sink in, and, if he had been able to, Bakura would have smacked himself for being so stupid. He was the thief that had humiliated and stolen from the Demon Lord some five-hundred-odd times; of course they were going to execute him at the first chance they got. It would restore his royal highness's worm-eaten pride, which was all he had left considering that his reputation had been deep in a sludge-filled gutter for several years.

Once he thought about it, the demon realized that this was the first time that he had ever been truly frightened of dying. It wasn't the actual concept of it that scared him; it never had, and it probably never would. It was the fact that he wouldn't be able to protect Ryou once he was dead that made him dread the executioner's axe. During the previous night, it had seemed a wonderful prospect to live the rest of his life with Ryou, and if he died tomorrow then he would never get that chance.

Everything that Ryou had said and done the night before, from holding the demon as he cried to showing him how to feel, all rushed back to him. It overwhelmed him, and there was a sudden craving for that sweet intoxication that was his angel. Bakura suddenly understood what Ryou had meant when he said that love could also be painful as well as pleasurable. If he lost Ryou… what else was there?

In a blaze of anger and frustration, Bakura jerked at his chains roughly. And he jerked them again, and again, and again. They were old and rusted, even though he was too caught up in his anger to notice this, and the more he jerked and pulled at them, the farther they pulled out of the wall.

A tear managed to escape Bakura's tightly shut eyes, rolling down his cheek to fall down to the cold stone floor beneath him. The thought of never seeing Ryou again invaded his mind, and gradually he sank into despair. The anger slowly ran dry, and he slumped against the wall defeatedly. It had always been this way; the gods had never been kind to the demon, and they never would be. Just give him a little taste of something beautiful, he was sure they had once said, and then steal it away from him just as soon as he gets his hopes up.

The demon clenched his fists as these thoughts invaded his mind, the frustration rising again for a bare second. A strangled cry tore from his throat, and in one last fury-fueled pull, the chains popped right out of the wall. Bakura promptly fell forward in surprise, his anger suddenly forgotten.

He blinked at nothing for a moment, then pushed himself up into a sitting position and stared at his hands. The cuffs were still around his wrists, the chains attached to them, but the chains were no longer attached to the wall. Making sure that he gave the cloudy sky where those infernal gods resided a healthy glare, he carefully stood, trying to make as little use of his shoulder as he could.

The first priority was to find Ryou, of course, and the second, if he had time, was to chop the Demon Lord and his infernal son up into several pieces, skewer them, and roast them on a spit. Both of these thoughts immediately put the demon in a better mood.

Now, to work on an escape plan…

Ryou woke up slowly, a painful throbbing in the back of his skull greeting him. He opened his eyes to darkness all around him, except for the dim light of a few candles. He found that he was lying on an enormous bed covered with bright silk sheets, and the candles around him cast eerie shadows across the large room he was in. The angel lay where he was for a moment, staring at the high ceiling dazedly and trying to remember what had happened.

The last thing he remembered seeing was Bakura being hit over the head, and everything after that was simply blackness. Ryou couldn't see any sign of Bakura around him, and began to sit up to look around. That was rather difficult, as his wrists were tied to the lavishly carved headboard. Still groggy, it took him a moment to process why he couldn't sit up, and it took him another moment to find that a gag stuffed in his mouth thwarted any attempt to call out to Bakura. The only sound he could make was a soft, muffled moan.

Ryou struggled vainly against his bonds, wondering where Bakura was and if he was all right or not. He remembered suddenly that Bakura had been hurt when they had been captured, which only made him worry even more. The angel continued to pull at the ropes, then winced as his wing began to throb. His feathered wings were tied together behind his back, which effectively kept them immobile, and was also in a rather uncomfortable position.

A sound from outside the room made Ryou's head snap up, and he stared at the curtained entrance with wide eyes. The noise became clearer second by second, and Ryou could distinguish that the noises were uncoordinated footsteps. It sounded as if the person was stumbling ungracefully along down the hallway.

The curtains were pulled open abruptly, and a dark, heavy-set figure stood in the entrance breathing heavily. The figure stumbled drunkenly forward, letting the curtains fall closed behind him, and came into the circle of light that the candles created. Ryou couldn't see his face clearly, but did see the empty glass bottle in his hand and the large black wings extending from his back.

"Hello, pretty one…" he said, his words slurred, and crawled onto the bed rather clumsily. Ryou tried his best to shrink away from the demon, but was held securely in place by the ropes. The angel's shirt had been removed earlier before he had awoken, and the strange demon crawled forward and began to caress Ryou's ivory skin with his rough hands. Ryou closed his eyes tightly, tears of despair and fear squeezing out of them.

/No…/ he thought, still fighting against his bonds and the demon, but the ropes were too strong and the demon held him down almost painfully. He tried to cry out, but he couldn't. /Oh, please, no…/

Only Bakura was supposed to touch him like this… Only Bakura had permission to do this… Ryou wished as hard as he could to be in the garnet-eyed demon's embrace again as he struggled weakly once more.

The strange demon's hands began to travel lower, and Ryou's body began to shake with silent sobs. Only Bakura could touch him like this… This couldn't be happening…

/Please, no…/

A/N: Aah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Okay, I know I'm being really mean to our poor little angel, but every moment of angst balances out with a moment of sappiness in my fics. So, no more flying vegetables, please. Please review!


	8. Rescue Me and Take Me Away

A/N: Sorry if I seemed to take a long time to update, but sent me a lovely little e-mail saying that my uploading abilities were being taken away for a while. I'm not sure for how long, but I know that it's working now! But anyways… After many death threats, various pointy objects, a Latin book, and a leg of ham being thrown at me, I finally get to some sappy stuff! I told ya'll I'd make it better, didn't I? So now, on to the chapter!

The Love of an Angel

Chapter 8

"You, there! Stop right where you are!"

The quick shadow being spoken to either didn't hear or chose not to, and continued to run down the long corridor towards the narrow stone stairs that led out of the dungeon into the courtyard. Several of the guards were in pursuit; or, the only ones that hadn't put away more than two bottles of their favorite liquor so far that evening.

Several other guards lay unconscious on the ground in the hallway behind them, and would wake up the next morning with severe headaches. Bakura had wanted to make a more stealthy escape after picking the lock of his cell door, but there wasn't exactly much room deep in the dungeon and he hadn't been able to hide fast enough as a small troop of guards had come around the corner suddenly.

The demon finally reached the stairs, and dashed up them as quickly as he could. As soon as the night sky and the light of torches outside met his vision, he spread his wings and shot upward off the ground and into the sky. The shouts from below faded away behind him, the inebriated guards not nearly as fast as the elusive thief.

Bakura took off towards the high, elaborate towers where the Demon Lord, his officials, and his son resided. He weaved in between them, stopping only for bare seconds to peek into windows, looking for his angel. Eventually, he came to one of the highest towers in the small group that looked down upon the capital city, the window glass glistening with candlelight. As he looked inside, all the blood drained from his face. Then, it began to boil inside of him.

Some other bastard of a demon was on top of his Ryou, touching him, caressing him… his Ryou… Bakura saw the strange demon's hands begin to move down the angel's body, and Bakura knew only rage for the next few minutes.

The sound of glass shattering echoed through the vast room, causing the demon's head to snap up and stare with glazed, bloodshot eyes at the furious demon that now stood amongst the broken glass that had once been the window. A vicious snarl was on his face, his blood red eyes dark and stormy.

Grabbing the closest thing to a weapon that he could find, which was one of the larger shards of glass at his feet, Bakura strode forward menacingly. The drunken demon didn't have any time to react, whether he was capable of doing so or not, and suddenly found himself pinned down on the floor on the other side of the bed. The glass shard was suddenly half-embedded in his upper chest, and Bakura drew it very slowly down the demon's torso. Bright blood stained the floor, and the demon's scream filled the room.

Bakura abruptly flipped the man over, not withdrawing the glass shard, and there was a harsh cracking sound suddenly masked by a scream as both of the demon's wings were broken. Bakura grabbed the demon by the scruff of the neck, dragged him over to the window, and promptly tossed him out into the cloudy night air.

The thief stared at the shattered window for a moment, then turned back around to the bed, and all of the anger melted away as if it had never even existed. He rushed over to the angel's side, his eyes their original garnet color once again with a new, gentle softness to them.

"Ryou…" he gently pulled the gag out of the angel's mouth, and the first thing he heard was a soft, "Bakura…" in that sweet, beautiful voice. The angel's face was covered in tears, though he was trying to smile at the demon through them. Bakura managed a small half-smile, trying to comfort the angel, then reached over and tore the ropes right off of Ryou's wrists. As soon as his hands were free, Ryou threw his arms around the demon and began to sob into his chest.

Bakura hugged back tightly, burying his face in Ryou's soft silvery hair. He pressed his lips to Ryou's forehead, and whispered soft words of comfort to the angel as he rocked him gently in his arms. Ryou's sobs eventually quieted, and the only sound in the room was the wind whistling through the shattered window. Slowly, the demon reached for the ropes that bound the angel's wings together.

The angel had to bite down hard on his lip to keep from crying out at the contact. As soon as his wings were free, he slowly extended them, gripping Bakura's arms tightly as he moved his broken wing. Ryou took a deep breath, let it out, and gradually his grip on Bakura loosened and the angel relaxed.

"Are you all right?" Bakura asked him. Ryou nodded, letting Bakura help him to his feet. "Where are we going to go?" Ryou asked.

Stopping for a moment, the demon frowned. He hadn't thought about that part. Just then, there were loud, quick footsteps outside of the room. Bakura barely had time to think, and simply pushed Ryou behind him and grabbed another of the glass shards. He hissed sharply as his shoulder protested, then tried to focus as the curtains in the doorway were thrown open.

Another demon stood there, with bronzed skin and wild golden hair that spiked out in all directions. The strange demon stared at Bakura and Ryou, and the two stared back at him. The strange demon blinked once, then asked, "Who the bloody hell are you?"

Bakura just glared, but secretly was wondering who this other demon was. Then, a voice from outside of the room called, "What was it, Mariku?" Yet another demon, one that looked rather like the first except that his build was more delicate and his hair was slightly tamer, walked into the room wearing only a sheet wrapped around himself.

The thief was now thoroughly confused. The demon that had just walked in, his aura was very similar to the cloaked demon that had captured them. Why was the tracker here in the palace with this Mariku? He frowned. And why did that name sound so familiar?

His eyes widened suddenly as he realized why, and then suddenly blurted out, "You're the Demon Prince!" pointing the glass shard that was still in his hand at the spiky-haired demon.

Mariku stared back for a moment, glanced at the broken piece of glass in Bakura's hand, then nodded. "Yes, I am. The last time I checked, anyways. And you are?"

Bakura didn't even hear the question. If this was the Demon Lord's son, then who was the bastard that he had sent flying out of the window three minutes ago? Behind him, Ryou was glancing from the two bronze-skinned demons to Bakura with wide eyes.

"Would you please tell me what's going on?" Mariku asked crossly.

"Mariku…" the bounty hunter said, walking up to the Demon Prince, "… do you remember what I told you about how I snuck in here? The angel that I had to get back in order to get into the palace?"

It took Mariku a moment, then he said, "But I thought that was supposed to be for my birthday. That's tomorrow."

"Technically, love, it already is tomorrow."

Mariku scratched his head. "Well, whatever. I don't understand why Father got me an angel, anyways. He couldn't even keep it a secret from me. Very poor planning." He looked over at Ryou, "No offense to you, but angels aren't really my thing. I much prefer my Malik here."

Bakura was still confused. "Wait a second… if you're the Demon Lord's son… then who…" He glanced over at the shattered window. Mariku blinked, and suddenly noticed the broken glass. "Ah, that must've been one of the servants; Yopparai, most likely. I heard he was supposed to guard the angel until Father gave me my "birthday surprise". He was a useless drunk; no great loss. I suppose I'll have to thank you for ridding me of him."

From behind Bakura, Ryou gathered up the courage to speak, "So, if you're happy with, um, Malik, then can we please leave?" Mariku put his arm around Malik, looked at the angel for a moment, and then said, "Sure. I certainly don't mind, and you two seem like you would be happy together."

Ryou blushed at the statement, and Bakura silently let out a breath that he had been holding. He hated to admit it, but his opinion of the Demon Lord's son had been bettered ten-fold already that evening. Mariku really wasn't what he had expected; his original picture had been a weak little princeling that squealed to his father, but thankfully that wasn't the case. He could just almost forgive that bounty hunter for what he had done, too… But, as long as Ryou was safe, it really didn't matter.

"You might need these first…" Malik said as he opened a closet in a corner of the room and tossed some clothes to Ryou. Ryou blushed an even deeper red.

"I'd be careful, though," Malik said as Bakura helped the angel dress himself. "His majesty might not care about the angel anymore, but he'll certainly want to go after the thief. We can try to throw him off the trail, if that'll help any." He grinned wryly, adding, "It might make up for what I did earlier. It was nothing personal." Malik stepped closer to the Demon Prince, resting his head on his lover's shoulder. "Mariku's father doesn't like me very much; it takes some work to get into this place for very long anymore."

Picking Ryou up, Bakura nodded to them. "Thank you," he said quietly, then darted out the window, holding the angel securely in his embrace.

The wind felt so good on his face… Ryou closed his eyes, letting the sound of the night breeze whistle past his ears. Just being up in the sky was like he had been woken up just now, refreshed and energized. He opened his eyes, gazing down at the trees that now passed underneath them. Great gods above, how he had missed flying… Leaning closer to Bakura's chest, he felt a smile creep onto his face.

The demon's black wings beat the air in a steady rhythm as he flew across the night, and Ryou suddenly found himself very tired. The cool wind was so soothing, and the sound of Bakura's wings and his breathing right next to him made his eyelids feel heavy. The demon looked down at the angel in his arms momentarily to see that Ryou had fallen asleep with a small smile on his face.

Bakura found a rather confusing mix of relief, sadness, bitterness, and joy swirling around in his mind as he gazed at the never-ending, ever-approaching horizon. Relief that Ryou was all right, sadness that Ryou had still had to suffer because of his own carelessness, bitterness that he had been stupid enough to be so careless, and joy because the angel was now in his arms once again.

He shook his head, silvery white hair bouncing along with the movement. He'd figure it out later when Ryou woke up, and when they were hopefully somewhere safe. The guards would figure out where they had gone soon enough, and both he and Ryou were injured. Would the caves be safe? He couldn't be sure…

"Bakura?" Ryou asked sleepily, his eyes still closed.

The demon blinked at the angel in surprise, thinking that Ryou had been asleep. "Yes?" he replied.

"Can we go to… Earth?"

Bakura frowned. Earth? That was the human realm, wasn't it? Was it even possible to get there? Well, if Ryou wanted to…

"I suppose… But do you know how to get there? As far as I know, it's rather impossible."

Ryou was silent for a moment, then murmured, "I heard a story a while ago, in the White Lands, about this angel who went to Earth because he loved a human. He went to the edge of the lands, where the mists are, and he jumped and went to Earth."

The demon listened carefully. The guards wouldn't dare follow them into the mists… His thoughts broke off as Ryou continued, "We could go to the edge of the lands; they wouldn't be able to find us on Earth. We wouldn't have to worry anymore…"

Bakura seemed troubled for a moment. "Are you sure? I could try to take you back to your home eventually…"

Ryou shook his head, and opened his soft green eyes to look up at Bakura. "They'd find us there again; they won't follow us to Earth. It would be nice to go back home, but it doesn't matter all that much. I just want to be with you…" Slowly, Ryou's eyelids fell closed again and his voice trailed off, replaced by slow, even breathing.

While he had been talking, the demon had changed his direction of flight, and now headed towards the unknown borders of the Black Lands.

A/N: Finally! That one took a lot of beating my head against a brick wall… I wasn't sure what was going to happen in this chapter until I actually wrote it, but here it is! By the way, the name for the random demon, Yopparai, means drunkard in Japanese. I thought it suited him… I hope everyone's happier with this chapter than they were with the last one. Please review!


	9. Plan of Escape

A/N: No, contrary to popular belief, this fic is not over! Also contrary to popular belief, I LIVE!!!! *ahem* It's been rather hectic... I had to go down to Winslow, Arizona (you know, from the Eagles song) which is a ways away, 'cause I live in Missouri, because we found out that my grandpa has a brain tumor. Just before that, two boys at my high school died in a car crash, which happened to be on the same day as my sixteenth birthday. So, yeah, forgive me if the updating seems slow and if the chapter seems short and a little below par this time around. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, you can't have any idea how much it means to me.  
  
Bakuras-Hell: Thank you very much! ^_^ Thanks for the review!  
  
SilverWing147: I thank you for your thanks of my thank you! ...Um, yeah...Ooh, yummy coffee! ^_^ Happy, um, belated Easter to you, as this is, like... *looks at calendar* May 2nd already. Thanks for the review!  
  
Weird0: No, it isn't over! I should've made a note at the end of the last chapter... but anyways, this will continue for a few more chapters. I'm glad you like the fic, thanks for the review! ^_^  
  
Dreigon: Hurray for Mariku! Heh, I'm glad I gave him a part in this fic, it's gotten a pretty good reception. I'm glad you like my ficcy so much, thanks for the review!  
  
Person6: *whew* No more sharp objects. Well, except for that Latin book, but it's not sharp, it's just... hard... *hides* If you want to know what happens, read on! ^_^ Thanks for the review!  
  
Freai: No, it's not the end! I'm not just going to leave it there. I really should've made a note at the end of the last chapter... But anyways! Thanks for the review!  
  
Ciu Sune: Gah! It's not the end! *falls out of chair* I didn't think people would see that chapter as the end so much... I'm glad you liked the chapter, though, and thanks for the review! ^_^  
  
Dragon Pearl1: *ducks questions* Yeah, um, well, I'm sure those questions will be answered in time. I don't think we'll be seeing Malik and Mariku again, and as for the rest, you'll have to read on to find out. *grin* Thanks for the review!  
  
BlingBling021: I'm glad you liked the chapter! ^_^ Ah, over a hundred reviews... *sits happily in pile of reviews* Um, yeah, thanks for the review!  
  
A Thousand Paper Cranes: Ooh, I have an excellent fic! *does happy dance* And yeah, I could picture that scene happening, and I want to get my sister to draw it for me. ^_^ Fun stuff. I'm glad you like my writing, thanks for the review!  
  
Citcat-chan: Nope, I decided not to make Mariku evil! 'Cause whoever was evil was going to have to be killed by Bakura, and I like Mariku too much to kill him. And no, it isn't over! I wouldn't dare end it there. Thanks for the review!  
  
Digimagic: Yay! I got glomped! *glomps back* Thanks for the review!  
  
Kurama Ryou: *jaw drops* Bakura gave a compliment? Is the world ending? *ahem* No, I am not stopping! Gosh, I've had to say that a lot... I should've said something in the last chapter's author notes, but I didn't think that so many people would think of it as a stopping point. I still have to be mean to you and your yami a little longer, though. I hope you post your stuff soon, I'd love to read it! ^_^ Thanks for the review!  
  
Angel Reaper: Meh, a lot of people thought that Yopparai was the demon prince, so don't worry about it. That was the intended effect! Heh, I'm so sneaky... Mwahahaha-*cough* Anyways, thanks so much for all the fanart, I loved the drawing that you did from Little Angel! ^_^ Thanks for the review!  
  
AllMetalTarnishes: Yay! Fluff! *huggles fluff* I'm glad you like the chapter, thanks for the review!  
  
Gemini Star01: Whee, I'm glad you liked the chapter! ^_^ By the way, do you have an account on go-gaia.com? I thought I saw you on there somewhere, but I wasn't sure... Anyway, if you do, PM me! My username is Lizzie the Meow. Thanks for the review!  
  
Bunnies-and-voldie-and-pink: Yup, he sure does! ^_^ Thanks for the review!  
  
*is overwhelmed by reviews* It took me almost two pages to reply to all of them! Wow... Anyway, on to Chapter 9!  
  
Disclaimer: Meh, I suppose I ought to put another one of these in just in case someone does see it in the first chapter... I do not own YuGiOh, its plot, its characters, or any other such related things! I may wish that I do, but that doesn't make any difference!  
  
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/Okay... Maybe this isn't going to be as easy as I thought.../  
  
Bakura winced and ground his teeth together as his shoulder protested to movement once again; every time that his wings moved, a sharp pain shot through his shoulder. /Damn whoever hit me there... I hope he chokes himself to death/ It had started bleeding again, but Bakura didn't dare stop. There was no telling how close or how far away the Demon Lord's guards were, and he didn't want to take any chances of them getting caught.  
  
Fifteen minutes later, his resolution wasn't quite as strong, and he was starting to reconsider that decision. Blood was running down his back, and his head as well as his shoulder was throbbing painfully. He battled between stopping to rest and going on, his energy falling shorter and shorter with every passing minute. The demon cursed himself for being so weak; this was no way for the greatest thief in all of the Black Lands to be. Looking down at the face of the sleeping angel resting against his good shoulder, he reminded himself of why he was going through this.  
  
/But, if you keep going like this, you might be too tired to make it all the way/ a sensible voice told him. But Ryou... He was so deep in his argument with himself that he jumped slightly in surprise when he heard a sudden gasp.  
  
"Bakura!"  
  
Ryou had woken up, and was staring at the bright red blood and Bakura's tired face in horror. He touched Bakura's cheek gently, saying, "You need to rest. You're tired..."  
  
The demon shook his head in reply. "No, I'm fine," he said in the most emotionless voice he could muster, trying to keep himself from looking at those soft, pleading eyes of Ryou's. He knew that if he did, he'd give in, even though he wasn't exactly making much progress on the decision by himself.  
  
"Please, Bakura? We need to stop; you must rest." Bakura couldn't resist it; he looked into Ryou's eyes, and they were wide and shining and beautiful in the moonlight. "Please?" he said softly, the gentle word falling from his lips and making Bakura crumble on the spot.  
  
And, five minutes later, they were hidden beneath the branches of several shrubs and a low, wide tree, Ryou bandaging Bakura's shoulder with a torn strip of fabric from his tunic as the demon leaned back against the tree trunk. When the angel was finished, he laid his head on Bakura's chest and stared down at the ground beneath them with a weary sigh.  
  
"Do you think we can make it?" he asked in a whisper, half-hopeful and half-despairing. Bakura almost shrugged, but caught himself before he made his shoulder any worse than it already was.  
  
"I'll make sure that we do," he said, determination in his voice. If Ryou wanted to go to Earth, then they would go to Earth, no matter what stood in their way. Still, the odds weren't exactly in their favor... Ryou couldn't fly, and Bakura's wound and loss of blood had cut his stamina extremely short. If they did somehow manage to make it, it would be nothing short of a miracle.  
  
His ears perked up suddenly; something was moving to their right. Bakura's eyes narrowed as he listened intently, Ryou looking up at Bakura with a curious frown on his face. There was someone else there. Bakura rose into a half-crouch in front of Ryou protectively, staring out into the dimness of the forest around them. There was a rustling sound, and the noise of the footsteps of one trying to be stealthy and not succeeding. Bakura held his breath as a demon wearing the uniform of the Demon Lord's elite guard half-stumbled into view.  
  
The guard glanced around rather self-consciously after he regained his balance, a spear in his hand and an unhappy look on his face. He looked around carefully, stepping slowly forward towards the tree that hid Ryou and Bakura. Within moments, he stood directly in front of them, still not able to see the hidden fugitives.  
  
Ryou bit down hard on his lip and clenched his hands into fists, desperately trying to keep his shaking under control. The guard looked around the area once more, then moved away from the tree and in the opposite direction. Bakura silently let out the breath that he had been holding, and Ryou let himself relax. Unfortunately, the angel had momentarily forgotten about his injured wing, and as he relaxed he leaned back against the tree and a knot in the trunk jabbed right into his broken wing. He jerked forward abruptly, and a small pained cry escaped his lips before he could stop himself, his hands flying to his mouth a moment too late.  
  
The guard spun around, stared at the small tree for a bare second, then moved toward it quickly. Bakura clenched his fists, then pushed off the ground and shot forward to take the guard by surprise. The guard, however, reacted more quickly than Bakura had expected, and he wasn't at all prepared for when the guard jabbed his spear forward and directly into the center of Bakura's left wing.  
  
Garnet eyes widened suddenly, searing pain spreading through every nerve in his wing, then narrowed into slits as he continued his attack in spite of the injury. The guard had expected the spear in the demon's wing to stop him, or at least slow him down, but a moment later knew no more as his neck was snapped and he fell lifeless to the ground. Bakura stood where he was for a moment, trying to get his breath back, then he staggered and fell to one knee.  
  
"Bakura!" Ryou stood and ran to him, kneeling down beside the demon. Bakura gritted his teeth, grabbed hold of the spear in his wing, and in one movement ripped it out. He shut his eyes tightly for a moment, gripping the spear so hard that the wood snapped in two. Taking a shuddering breath, he glanced up at Ryou.  
  
"Let's go," he said, and attempted to stand. The demon found himself having to lean on Ryou a little; he berated himself for being so weak. Glancing up at the sky, Bakura saw that there weren't any other guards above them. He had expected this little scuffle to be noticed by someone. But, it was just as well that it wasn't, since neither Ryou nor Bakura could fly anymore.  
  
Leaning on each other, Bakura and Ryou continued on their way towards the mists at the edge of the lands. The demon had estimated earlier that it would take maybe a day's flying; on foot and injured, it could take up to three or four.  
  
Bakura gritted his teeth, trying to make his uncooperative brain start working. There had to be some kind of shortcut, a faster and easier way to get to the mists. If they weren't able to move fast enough, they would be caught, and he wasn't strong enough to protect Ryou... he didn't follow that particular train of thought any farther, not wanting to know where it would lead.  
  
Suddenly, it came to him. In his mental map of the caves in the area, he found a long tunnel leading towards the southwest: the direction to the edge of the lands. They would be completely hidden underground, and even if the guards did find the entrance to the tunnel, he seriously doubted that they would search any farther than the first few meters. Bakura had explored it once a few years ago, and it traveled in an almost straight line to the southwest and eventually opened up where the Black River flowed out into the nothingness of the mists.  
  
Ryou leaned over to look into Bakura's face. The demon had been silent for what seemed like a long time, and the angel was becoming worried. His garnet eyes were distant and staring down at nothing, and his entire body was completely still.  
  
"Bakura?" Ryou asked gently, and jumped slightly when Bakura suddenly turned his head to look into the angel's soft eyes. The demon blinked a few times, seeming to come back to the present. After staring at the angel for a moment, he jerked his head to their left.  
  
"We're going that way. I have a plan."  
  
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A/N: *whew* That took a while to get done... especially the replies for all of those reviews! *huggles reviewers* Hopefully the next chapter will be up sooner than this one was, and the story will eventually being to wrap up here somewhere soon. I've got some other fic ideas that I want to start working on... Please review! ^_^ 


	10. Running and Falling

A/N: Good gravy, I think I died again. But now… I LIVE! All righty, this is (almost) the last chapter! There could be another one after this… or I could end it here! Who knows! I'm being spontaneous! I'm out of school now, anything could happen! Oh, and, just as a notice, I will be gone for two weeks as of June 8th. I'm going to Europe! So fun. That said, I will most likely not be updating during the aforementioned period of time, but now that it's summer, I promise to get my rear in gear and start up on some other fic ideas that have been floating around randomly in my head. And now, on to the next chapter!

The Love of an Angel

Chapter 10

Finally he could see the entrance to the cave. They were almost there. The two fugitives had been dodging guards, both flying overhead and searching through the brush, as Bakura led them to the underground tunnel. The night was almost over; sunlight was beginning to creep out from under the night sky on the eastern horizon, and the demon was not happy about it. They would no longer have the cover of darkness, and that was something that he did not feel like dealing with at the moment. His head was throbbing, his shoulder was a bloody mess, and his wing was prone to sudden spasms of pain.

Ryou was stumbling along next to the demon, not doing much better than Bakura was, and looking exhausted. "We're almost there," Bakura said softly, trying to reassure the angel. Ryou looked up, a look of relief forming on his face as he saw the cave entrance, which wasn't as concealed as the other caves that the two had hidden in.

Suddenly, the look of relief dissolved into fear. Bakura frowned, but he soon saw what had frightened Ryou. Four guards were crashing through the brush towards the cave, and as the demon and the angel stood frozen for a moment, the guards spotted them. The first of the guards charged forward, skimming over the ground with his wings spread and sword ready to strike.

Bakura reached instinctively for the dagger that was usually at his side, but then remembered that it had been taken from him when he had captured, so was only able to dodge the guard. The Demon Lord's guard skidded to a stop, and turned, sword in hand, but suddenly there was a loud crack. The guard's eyes grew wide and unfocused, then slowly fell closed as he slumped forward. Behind him was Ryou, a fallen tree branch in his hands.

Bakura stared at the angel for a moment, then his head snapped around as two more of the guards charged at them. The demon easily dodged a sword slash, his fist connecting squarely with his opponent's nose. The other guard went after Ryou.

"Hello, pretty thing…" he said in what he must have thought to be an arousing tone. Ryou frowned, and the guard, who had just been thinking how easy it would be to capture an angel, was completely unprepared when a tree branch slammed into the side of his head with such force that he was knocked out cold immediately. The final guard saw what had happened to his comrades, and rather abruptly decided that reinforcements were needed as he ran off in the other direction.

Meanwhile, Bakura walked over to Ryou. He stared for a few moments at the broken tree branch in Ryou's hands, then at the two unconscious guards that had been attacked with said tree branch. He blinked a few times, then chuckled softly. Ryou blinked, wondering if he had heard right; had Bakura just chuckled?

And there it was again! After a few more moments, Bakura was laughing uncontrollably as Ryou stood next to him and wondered what was so funny. Eventually, Bakura regained his composure. He took the tree branch out of Ryou's hands, tossed it at one of the unconscious guards, and proceeded to lead a confused Ryou into the tunnel.

------------------

Ryou gradually woke up to see the dark tunnel walls around him, hearing Bakura's slow, steady breathing beside him. The angel's head was resting in the demon's lap, said demon slumped against the wall fast asleep. Ryou sighed; they had been traveling through the tunnel for almost two days now, and being in a small, dark space for that long was unnerving. Bakura hadn't been quite sure exactly how close they were to the end, but estimated that it would be another day or more before they got near the end of the tunnel. Ryou grimaced; it wasn't a pleasant thought.

The angel stared up at the ceiling of the tunnel, falling deep into his own thoughts. He felt rather useless, and he didn't like the feeling. Bakura was the one that had rescued him, gotten them out of the capital city, fought off the guards, and found a way for them to get to the edge of the lands to go to this unknown place called Earth. And what had Ryou done to aid them in all this? Almost nothing. Sure, he had smacked that guard in the face with a stick, but Bakura could've taken that guard with his bare hands. Ryou barely knew how to fight; he had never thought it would be a skill that he would need. And so, he sat back and watched uselessly…

Well, he had done something good, hadn't he? He'd broken through Bakura's barriers, and helped the demon rebuild himself once everything had crumbled to the ground. That was good, right? He loved Bakura, too… Wasn't that also something? The angel looked up at Bakura's sleeping face, feeling confused.

Deciding to try and get his mind off of that, Ryou wondered to himself what Earth was like. He'd heard some stories about it, but those stories had been from thousands of years ago when there had been a little more contact between the White Lands and Earth. Now, it was said, the humans of Earth didn't even know that the White and Black Lands existed. They knew about the Gate, for some reason, but not the land that guarded it.

Ryou found that he didn't know much about humans, either; supposedly they were almost exactly like angels and demons, except did not have any type of wings. Otherwise, he was clueless; he had no idea what their customs would be, what kind of culture they had, or even what language they spoke. As long as they actually got to the mists, it would be quite a transition.

It was said that when a human went through the Gate in the White Lands, they would have the wings of angels, and that if an angel or demon went to Earth, then they would no longer have their wings. It made sense; Ryou didn't exactly like the prospect of losing his wings, but not having them and being on Earth was better than having them and being in the possession of the Demon Lord.

Bakura murmured something in his sleep, and Ryou looked up at him curiously. A moment later, the demon opened his eyes, garnet looking down into soft green. He smiled, brushing some of Ryou's white hair out of his eyes.

"How are you doing?" he asked softly. Ryou smiled back at him, and tried to say that he was fine, but a yawn cut in right at that moment. Bakura's smile widened as the angel yawned cutely, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand.

"I'm fine," he finally managed to say. "Maybe a little sleepy." Ryou's stomach growled loudly in protest. "…and a little hungry," he said sheepishly.

They stared into each other's eyes for a few moments, and then Ryou slowly looked away. Bakura's brow creased, and he gently turned the angel's face back to look up at him. "Is something bothering you, angel?"

Ryou opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it. He averted his eyes, then tentatively began to speak, "I just… I feel sort of… well, useless, I suppose."

Before Bakura could say anything, Ryou continued, feeling the sting of tears building up behind his eyes, "Well, what I mean is, I feel like I haven't done anything to help us get out of here. All that I've really been is a nuisance; I can't fight, I couldn't escape from the palace by myself, I'm the reason that your wing got wounded, and…"

The angel was cut off as Bakura put a finger on his lips. He stared down into Ryou's green eyes for almost a full minute, then said softly and carefully, "It's okay. You can't have any idea what you have done for me, and it's a debt that I can only try to repay."

Staring up at him, Ryou wondered absently when Bakura had gotten so good at speaking with such sweet words. He could see the frightened child in the demon's eyes again, the part of him that only Ryou had ever seen. Also mixed in there was gratitude, and what could only be identified as love. The demon leaned down and gently kissed the angel, hoping to reassure him.

"We'd better get going," Bakura said as he pulled away, though he made no immediate move to do so. He stayed sitting where he was, stroking Ryou's cheek gently.

"Yes, we should…" Ryou murmured quietly, but he didn't move, either. Instead, he closed his eyes and leaned into Bakura's soft touch. He kissed the demon's rough fingertips, wrapping his arms around Bakura's waist and laying his head on the demon's stomach.

As much was he would have liked to continue to lie like that, Bakura knew that they had to keep moving. He heard Ryou sigh unhappily as the angel felt him shift around to stand up. His emerald eyes opened to stare at the darkness around them, and he reluctantly allowed Bakura to pull him up to his feet.

"How much farther?" Ryou asked as they started walking.

"We should be about three quarters of the way there," Bakura estimated, "so it shouldn't be too much longer. Maybe less than a day."

Ryou sighed yet again; a little less than a day wasn't exactly "not too much longer" in his book. But, it wasn't like he had a choice, so he kept walking. His wing had been irritating him lately; it itched under the old bandage that Bakura had wrapped around it, which seemed like so long ago. If he tried to scratch it, he always regretted it; just touching it would make it hurt.

The angel let his mind slowly shut down as they traveled down the tunnel, keeping himself just aware enough to put one foot in front of the other. It dulled everything, making his movements mechanical and much easier. Just keep walking… one foot in front of the other… that's all that exists… And so he walked in a daze, staring down at his feet with half-lidded eyes.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been moving forward like that, but was rather abruptly brought back into the present when he smacked right into Bakura, both of them stumbling forward to land in an ungraceful heap on the tunnel floor.

"Awake, aren't we?" the demon said dryly from his position on the floor. Ryou blushed bright red, stuttering apologies as he stood back up and helped Bakura to his feet. He looked up in the direction that they were traveling, and saw why Bakura had stopped so suddenly. Small streams of light were coming from the end of the tunnel.

"Did we make it?" Ryou asked in a whisper, as if the sunlight might hear him and choose to disappear again. The moment of awe was slightly ruined by the angel's stomach growling loudly, but he ignored it, and urged his tired legs to move forward to what he hoped was the exit. Bakura was beside him, also apparently having trouble getting himself to move forward.

After what seemed like an eternity of running, they reached the end of the tunnel. Ryou turned his face to the sky; there were dark clouds building, just beginning to cover up the sun, but he didn't care. He could see the sky; they were close to reaching their ultimate path of escape, and that was all that mattered. Thunder rumbled across the sky, and lightning laced its way through the clouds. The soft sound of raindrops hitting the dry ground filled the air, and Ryou let the coolness of the rain hit his face and flow down it in clear rivulets.

Bakura, meanwhile, looked off to the horizon. There, the mists could just barely be seen through beneath the rain-heavy clouds. It wasn't much farther. He glanced at the angel, whose arms were spread wide as if to embrace the water falling from the sky. Bakura didn't want to disturb his bliss, but instead took Ryou's hand.

Green eyes opened, blinking a few times, then lighting up with a smile. Bakura smiled back, and, giving Ryou a gentle tug on his hand, they headed towards the mist on the horizon. The forest had ended a long time ago above the tunnel, and all was now amber fields splotched with green plants every so often. No towns or cities were this close to the mist; Earth was considered beneath the status of the White and Black Lands, and thus no one wanted to be anywhere near the passage to it.

Suddenly, Bakura pulled on Ryou's arm hard, and began running. Ryou was pulled along behind, barely able to keep up, and was out of breath so quickly that he couldn't ask Bakura what was wrong. He managed to glance back over his shoulder, and saw why Bakura had taken off so quickly. Twelve or so demons dressed in the red and black uniforms of the Demon Lord's guard were flying rapidly over the field behind them.

The angel almost panicked right then, and a momentary burst of adrenaline made him run so fast that he caught up with and passed Bakura, pulling the demon along behind him instead. Wishing to every god, goddess, deity, demi-god, and saint that he could think of that he could use his wings, he ignored the fire building up in his lungs and pushed himself as hard as his rapidly-depleting reserves of energy would allow.

He could see it… it wasn't that far now… The mists were right up ahead, so very close, and beneath their gray blanket was Earth where they could be free. The angel glanced at the demon next to him, and soft green met bright garnet. Ryou realized in some random part of his mind that their hands were still locked together.

Looking forward again, the mists were so very close. Looking back again, he could see the guards coming closer and closer. Just a little farther… just a little farther… He didn't know if he was going to make it. He was so tired… his energy was almost gone… Don't think, just run. Run.

Neither of them hesitated. They leapt into the mists simultaneously, still holding hands, and began to fall. The surprised and angry shouts of the guards behind them faded away, the mist surrounded them, and a sudden pain in their wings began to build up. Looking at the angel next to him, Bakura saw that his angel had passed out from exhaustion. Reaching out and taking him into his arms as they fell, the demon let warm darkness take him, comforted in the fact that, whatever happened now, they were free from the Black Land forever.

A/N: Well, I really hope this wasn't too crappy. I've been extremely critical of my own writing lately, and I would like to know what I could focus on to try and make it better. If anyone has any ideas, please TELL ME. I hope ya'll enjoyed the chapter, there will be one more chapter, most likely very short. Please review!


	11. Sanctuary

A/N: Well, everyone, this is the final chapter of The Love of an Angel. It's been, like, over a month since I last updated, which is due to two things. I was in Europe for two weeks in the middle of June, and the second is when I came back I found out that my grandfather passed away while I was in Europe. That said, it's been rather hectic. On the lighter side, my uncle (who happens to be 48) is getting married in August. His mother is beyond ecstatic. So I get to go to Las Vegas for their wedding! Anyhoo, sorry for the long delay.

P.S. If there's anyone here who has not read Little Angel, this chapter will make a lot more sense if you do.

The Love of an Angel

Chapter 11

The first thing that he was aware of was the sound of water; it reminded him of when the river near his home had once flooded and the waters had been crashing over the rocks thunderously. The second thing he noticed was that his wings hurt so much that he could hardly bear it. Hoping desperately that the bone hadn't broken again, he reached a hand over to where his broken wing should have been. Instead, he touched a damp, sandy surface. Where was his wing? That was when he remembered.

Ryou's eyes flew open, and he saw endless water spread out before him. The roaring sound he was hearing was the water crashing in swirling waves onto the wet, sandy surface beneath him. He stared in awe at the blue horizon for a few moments, then abruptly attempted to sit up. His attempt failing, he carefully lay himself back down, trying to keep the spasms of pain under control.

"Bakura?" he managed to whisper weakly. He heard a groan somewhere near him, and rolled over slowly to come face to face with groggy garnet eyes. The dazed eyes blinked at him, and then realization dawned on the demon's face.

"We're here?"

Ryou could only nod, scooting in and resting his head against Bakura's chest. He felt the demon's arms encircle him, and he felt warm darkness begin to creep into his consciousness once again. Ryou tried to fight against it for a few moments, but was so tired that he could barely keep his eyes open. The pain in his back faded into a dull throb, and he gradually gave in to sleep.

Not very far away, their destination being the same beach that Ryou and Bakura had ended up on, were two young men walking leisurely down the sidewalk. They held hands, stealing adoring glances at each other every so often. At first glance, the two looked like brothers, if not twins. Their hair spiked outward in black and ruby, jagged gold bangs framing their faces. One was slightly shorter than the other, his usually shy eyes a brilliant violet. The taller one had deep crimson eyes that could be piercing and sharp, but were only gentle when around his shorter look-alike.

They soon saw the sea stretching out before them, and Yami slipped an arm around Yugi's waist. The two had developed a particular fondness for the sea ever since a morning one year ago when Yugi had reached Earth from the White Land of the angels. Yugi rested his head on Yami's shoulder, sighing happily.

Yugi's adjustments to Earth had been… interesting, to say the least. The household appliances of Earth were not a common thing in the ancient community of the White Lands. At present, Yugi understood the concepts of electricity and indoor plumbing, and had immersed himself in Earth literature. He was currently working his way through William Shakespeare, which resulted from asking the local librarian what her favorite books were. Yami had graduated from high school only a few months after Yugi had come to Earth (miraculously catching up with his classes after nearly a month in the hospital), and they began living together in the closest apartment that they could get to the sea.

During those months before Yami graduated and moved out, Yugi mostly stayed with Yami's friend, Jounouchi, who already lived in his own apartment with his sister, Shizuka. Yami had been planning to take Yugi to the hospital first for the wounds to be treated, but they had healed amazingly fast in only a few days, and there was never any need to. Thus far, only Jounouchi, Shizuka, and Jounouchi's boyfriend Seto (who came to the apartment so much that he eventually found out) knew where Yugi was really from. It had been hard to believe at first, but Yugi's complete lack of knowledge of Earth's history and the modern world was very efficient at convincing them.

Yami was pulled out of his memories as Yugi suddenly stiffened and his stride slowed to a stop. He frowned slightly, staring intently down the empty walkway to the beach.

"Yugi?" Seeming to come back to reality, Yugi blinked, and looked up at Yami.

"I…" he started, then looked back at the direction they were walking in. "I… I feel something…" he eventually said in a soft voice. "But… but that couldn't be…" he said, more to himself than to Yami, who was becoming confused.

"What is it?"

"It feels like…" he paused for a moment, his frown deepening, "…like… another angel…"

Yami's heart skipped a beat. "You're sure?" he asked immediately. "I mean, you can feel other angels?"

Nodding, Yugi said softly, "Yes, an angel's aura feels different from that of a human, even after they've come to Earth and lost their wings. And…" he paused again. "It feels like there's… something else. It's not a human, but it's not an angel, either. The aura is… darker…"

Yugi fell silent for a moment until Yami asked, "Do you want to keep going?" Yugi bit his lip, then nodded slowly. "Yes…" he said. "If there's another angel on Earth, I want to know who it is."

The angel began walking again, his steps determined. The beach had already been close when they had stopped, and they reached it in less than five minutes. Yugi led Yami down the beach to a more secluded, rocky area, following the feelings of this strange aura. They came around the corner of some of the sea-washed rocks, and came to a sudden stop.

Lying there in the sand were two people, one holding the other in his arms. Both of them had snowy white hair, damp with sea spray, and trails of blood were slowly coursing down each of their backs. It was only then that Yugi realized what the darker aura was; it was a demon. He had never encountered a demon before, and had only heard stories about them from his grandfather that described them as once being honorable creatures that were simply of a darker power, but had eventually fallen into savagery. Angels had been warned to stay away from them, as well as the border between the White Lands and the Black Lands.

This in mind, Yugi backed up a step when the demon shifted slightly. Suddenly, tired garnet-colored eyes looked up at him and Yami, staring at them dazedly for a moment. His eyes widened slightly as they met Yugi's violet orbs, gazing into them for a moment, and then he somehow pushed himself up on his elbow. The demon began to shake the shoulder of the angel beside him, trying to wake him up.

"Ryou," a hoarse whisper escaped his lips. "Ryou…"

Yugi was rather confused; the demon was concerned for the angel? This contradicted everything that he had been told about demons, but he detected a sincere note in the demon's voice. The violet-eyed angel slowly took a few steps forward, and kneeled down beside the two. The demon's head snapped up, garnet eyes hardening as he protectively put an arm around the unconscious angel's shoulders.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Yugi said as gently as possible. He smiled reassuringly at the demon, then asked, "Will you let me help you?"

The demon frowned apprehensively, his eyes occasionally stealing a look at the white-haired angel beside him. Inside, he was uncertain; could this human with an angelic aura be trusted? Just then, Ryou moaned in his sleep from the pain of his lost wings, and he curled up towards the warmth of Bakura's body.

Watching Ryou shiver from the dampness and his face contort in pain, Bakura felt his heart twist painfully. He reluctantly looked up at Yugi and nodded. Yugi smiled again, then looked over at Yami. "Would you carry him, please?" he asked, gesturing at the white-haired angel. Yami blinked, still not sure what was going on, but went over to the limp angel and carefully took him into his arms.

Yugi took one of Bakura's arms and placed it around his shoulders, then helped the demon to his feet. "What's your name?" he asked. The demon was silent for a few moments, then said softly, "Bakura." He then jerked his head in the direction of Yami and the unconscious angel, and said, "His name is Ryou."

* * *

Ryou slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times to get his vision into focus. Gradually remembering where he was, he sat up in his bed. Beside him, Bakura was still asleep, late morning sunlight streaming in through the window and onto his relaxed features. Ryou smiled, brushing a few stray strands of hair out of Bakura's eyes.

They had only been on Earth for two and a half weeks, and Ryou had to admit that it was stranger than he had expected. Light would come out of what was called a "light bulb" if one just flipped a little switch, and there was a box for storing food that was somehow cold without any ice. Ryou and Bakura had been living with Yugi, the angel that Ryou had once heard about that had left the White Lands for Earth, and Yami, the human that Yugi had fallen in love with.

Just like Yugi, the wounds from Ryou and Bakura's lost wings had healed very quickly. Yami was relieved at this, as it would have been extremely difficult to explain why the wounds looked as if some extra limb had been removed from their backs and why neither Ryou nor Bakura had any previous records at all. Thus, they had been taken care of by Yugi and Yami until the healing process was complete.

As Ryou was reflecting on the past week and all the rapid changes that had occurred, Bakura awoke and turned his head to look at the former angel. He reached up to run his fingers over Ryou's lily-soft cheek, and soft green eyes shifted to look down at Bakura.

"Good morning," Ryou said softly. Bakura smiled sleepily up at him, and replied, "Good morning." There was silence for another several moments. Ryou lay back down and snuggled up against Bakura, who put his arm around his angel. The former demon stared at the ceiling, wondering if he should bring up a subject that had been bothering him lately. Without really making a final decision, his mouth began working of its own accord.

"Ryou?" he asked quietly.

"Yes?"

"Are you going to miss it?"

Ryou frowned, then pushed himself back up on his elbow and looked Bakura in the eye. "Miss what?"

"Your home."

The white-haired angel blinked, and thought for a moment. "Yes," he said after a moment. "I will miss it. The White Lands were beautiful outside of the cities. It was a wonderful place to live."

Turning his eyes back to the demon, Ryou saw that Bakura's eyes were downcast. It was only then that he realized what was bothering the garnet-eyed thief. Ryou gently pulled Bakura's chin up so that their eyes met, and he said softly yet firmly, "I will miss my home, Bakura, but being able to go back to it would mean nothing if I couldn't be with you. I came to Earth for a reason, and that reason is you. I want to be with you, and I want to love you."

Bakura's eyes shifted in another direction, and Ryou saw that the demon still wasn't convinced. "Look at me, Bakura." Garnet eyes slowly met soft emerald, and Ryou continued. "If we had gone back to the White Lands, we never would have been able to live in peace. The demons were able to get past the borders between the lands to capture me, so why couldn't they do it again? The Demon Lord would always be looking for us, and we wouldn't be able to run forever."

Ryou leaned in closer. "He can't find us here. We're safe here. Being with you in peace is all that I could ever, ever want." The angel leaned down to place a soft, chaste kiss on the demon's lips. "I love you," he whispered softly.

Apparently speechless, all Bakura could do was stare at Ryou for a few moments, and then he swiftly put his arms around the angel and snuggled up close to him. "I love you, too," a slightly muffled whisper escaped the demon's lips.

The angel just smiled, and closed his eyes. He listened as Bakura's breathing became slow and steady, feeling the demon's warm body next to his. /An angel and a demon…/ he thought to himself suddenly as he started to drift off to sleep again. /What a strange match we are…/ And with that thought, he was asleep.

A/N: I enjoyed writing that chapter. Thanks to everyone who reviewed on this fic and encouraged me to keep writing, because I probably would never have even started this fic if it weren't for you. I will hopefully start working on another one of my fic ideas soon, and there are a lot of them, so I should be kept pretty busy. I'm stuck between doing another Ryou/Bakura, or a Yugi/Yami, so let me know what you want. If anyone has any fic ideas of their own, let me know. If anyone has any ideas on how I can improve my writing, let me know. I'm open to suggestions! Please review!


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